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O R A T I O 



T 



DEI-IVEUICI) 15EFOUE THE 



CITY AUTHORITIES OF BOSTON, 



FOURTH OF JULV, 18 65, 



J. M. MANNING. 



TOOin'HKK WITH 



AN ACCOUNT or TIIK MrMCIPAL ClCI.KIiUATI ON OF THE EIGHTY-NINTH AXNIVEHSAKY 



AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 



y 




BOSTON: 
J. E. FARWELL & COMPANY, PRINTERS, 

No. 37 CONORKSS STUliET. 

18G5. 



CITY OF BOSTON. 



In Common Council, July 6, 1865. 
Ordered : That the thanks of the City Council be pre- 
sented to the Rev. Jacob INI. Manning for the highly eloquent 
and patriotic Oration delivered by him before the Municipal 
authorities on the celebration of the Declaration of American 
liidcpendcnce, July 4, 18(55, and that he be requested to 
furnifh a c(^})y for publication. 
Sent up fn* concurrence. 

W:\I. B. FOWLE, President. 

Ill Board of Aldermen, July 10, 1805. 
Concurred. 

G. AV. MESSINGER, Chairman. 

A[»[)roved July 11, LSI)."). 

F. W. LINCOLN, Jr., Mayor. 

A true coj)y. Attest : 

S. F. I\lcCLEARY, Clnj Clerk. 



ORATION. 



IIi;retofore on occasion of our National Anniversary 
tlic speakers summoned to address you have sometimes 
pressed on your hearing ideas and sentiments respect- 
ing "which you earnestly differed from them and one 
another. And hereafter, should the exigencies of the 
country at any time require, Boston cannot lack 
courageous men, instant in season, who v\ill speak 
the unwelcome truths which she ought to hear. But 
the task of to-day, though perhaps not less difficult, 
is more agreeable. The duty you have imposed upon 
me, if I rightly apprehend it, is to aid in giving utter- 
ance to the feeling which now fills all our hearts. 
In saying this, I assume that the feeling itself is right ; 
a patriotic joy, exultant w^ith the ecstasies and tender 
over the agonies of successful war, — a joy full of 
gratitude for the deliverance already vouchsafed, and 
causing us to renew our solemn vow that no promise 
to man, contained in the Declaration of Independence, 
shall be left unfulfilled. 



b PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

It has been said of John Adams, that upon the pas- 
aiige of the Resokition of Independence, July 2, 1776, 
his mind " heaved like the ocean after a storm." 
Thus docs a nation's heart heave to-day. The voice 
of its thanksgiving is as the voice of many waters. 
A mystic chord, stretched from our one heart 
across the intervening years, vibrates responsively to 
the words of "the colossus in that debate." Our joy 
seeks the lofty utterance in which he exclaimed, " the 
day is past. The second day of July, 1776, will be the 
most memorable epocha in the history of America ; 
to be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great 
Anniversary Festival-, commemorated as the day of 
deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God 
Almighty, from one end of the continent to the 
other, from this time forward, forevermore." He 
adds, " You will think me transported with en- 
thusiasm, but I am not." " Through all the gloom, 
I can see the rays of light and glory." " You and 
I may rue," but " posterity will triumph." 

" Posterity will triumph." Yes, we stand in the 
dawn of the day whose glory was foreseen by the 
Fathers. Now is fulfilled the word which was then 
spoken. We are the citizens of an independent and 
regenerated country. We breathe an atmosphere 
which is invigorating to liberty. Plymouth Rock, so 
long refused of the builders, has become the corner- 



TEACE U^"DER LIBERTY. 1 

stone of the republic. To-day we nationalize the 
])raycr for Massachusetts, devoutly saying, " God save 
the United States of America ! " The ark, to which 
we committed our liberties when the flood of Rebellion 
came, and from which the dove was sent forth again 
and again only to return each time with the olive branch 
in her mouth, now rests upon the summits of victory. 
And on this most auspicious birthday of the nation, we 
are going forth from that ark to build our altar, and 
to look on the bow in the clouds, which tells us that 
war shall no more deluge our land. 

1 Fas it been befitting, hitherto, that we should cele- 
brate the anniversary of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence 1 Then it is doubly befitting that we should do 
so from this time forth. To those who have rebelled 
and been defeated, we do not presume that this pro- 
]uicty W'ill appear. Nor are we anxious to succeed in 
meeting their views of the fitness of things. Four 
years ago they intimated that we were not prosperous 
enough ; and to-day, forsooth, we are too prosperous to 
keep the feast. Then they ridiculed the solemnity of 
Avhicli they are now disposed to complain. But loyalty 
does not choose treason for her teacher when she goes 
to school. As we were hopeful in the day of adversity, 
so will we be grateful in the day of triumph. We did 
not omit our feast when Freedom was threatened. 



8 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

nor will Ave now that Slavery is overthrown. Yet we 
indnlge in no ungenerous exultation. We rejoice not 
at the discomfiture of our enemies, but in the Salvation 
of the Republic. We di-eaded war with them, knowing 
that our own blood flowed in their veins. We clung 
to the common traditions and glory of the past. We 
were charitable and forbearing almost to the verge of 
recreancy. And that patience and long suffering are 
to-day our vantage-ground. We are sure that no 
malignity mingles with our joy ; but only a just indig- 
nation, not untinged with pity and grief. We rejoice 
not that half a continent is laid waste or covered with 
mourning, but that liberty has taken another step for- 
'^ard in the world. Whatever of tenderness there 
lUay be in our hearts, if we w^ere silent in view of 
what God has wrought, the very stones would cry 
out. 

It has been said by one of our English critics, that 
we violated the spirit of this festival, when we under- 
took to put down the Rebellion by force of arms. 
" Henceforth," was his language, " the observance of 
the Fourth of July is an unmeaning ceremony." But 
that conclusion was reached from an inadequate prem- 
ise. The critic seemed to see only half of what the 
Declaration of Independence proclaims. Let no one 
be misled by the name of that immortal paper. Besides 
the right of revolution, to which the name especially 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. \) 

points, tlic paper itself declares that there is an 
inalienable right of liberty, which belongs equall)- to 
all men. But allowing our critic his premise, what 
was that right of revolution declared by the Fathers ? 
AVas it something that would legitimate the Southern 
Rebellion ? Was it a principle Avhich we violated in 
putting down that Rebellion by force 1 The Fathers 
of the Republic did not believe in wantonly breaking 
up any form of government. The oppression must be 
intolerable and morally wrong, and revolt the only 
available means of redress, in order to justify such a 
course. Had the national rule become wicked and in- 
tolerably oppressive to the South ? 

Imagine the conspirators at Montgomery saying that 
" a decent respect to the opinions of mankind required 
that they should declare the causes which impelled 
them to the separation." What were those causes, 
when fairly stated 1 A golden passage in the 
first draft of the Declaration had been dropped to 
please the Southern delegates. At the framing of the 
Constitution that noble charter was again compromised 
to bring South Carolina into the Union. Concession 
after concession was made to the Slave States, and 
they seized one centre after another of the Federal 
power. They wielded the Government of the country ; 
and gradually published their design to make it the 
bulwark and propagandist of barbarism. Would such 



10 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

a statement as this show " a decent respect to the 
opinions of mankind 1 " Do we see here any warrant 
for using that carefully defined Right of Revolution 
which the Fathers claimed ? No, they dared not make 
an honest appeal to history. Their better nature told 
them that they could give only the most monstrous of 
reasons for what they did. Hence the fictions of State 
Sovereignty and the Right of Secession, by which they 
sought to escape. The war under Abraham Lincoln 
hostile to the Declaration of Independence ? It was 
reluctantly accepted to rescue that Declaration from the 
spoiler. Had we failed to crush the Rebellion, and 
had foreign powers stooped to the infamy of a full 
recognition ; had we lost everything else, still we should 
not have lost our fidelity to those rights which the 
Fathers of the Republic held sacred. 

But this is not all. So far from having fallen back, 
we stand higher to-day than on any previous birthday 
of the nation. Did the first war with England establish 
the Right of Revolution ^ The war for the Union has 
not yielded that right, but saved it from an infamous 
abuse. And our time-hallowed festival, while retaining 
all its earlier meaning, is to-day vastly more significant 
than ever before. We should feel that we have met 
to inaugurate a new jubilee of freedom. Those voices 
of the Declaration which proclaim liberty and equality 
are no longer muffled. They peal forth clearly in 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 11 

every note of joy, and they fall only npon willing ears. 
To-day, for the first time, the mighty chorns is entire. 
Our feast is kept not merely in the oldness of the 
letter, but in the newness of the spirit. As we are 
amending the Constitution, so I could wish that we 
might amend the Declaration, by restoring to it those 
w^ords wiiich were blotted at the demand of Slavery. 
" He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, 
violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in 
the persons of a distant people who never offended 
him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in 
another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in 
their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, 
the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of 
the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to 
keep open a market where MEN should be bought and 
sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing 
every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain 
this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage 
of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he 
is now exciting these very people to rise in arms among 
us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has de- 
prived them, by murdering the people upon whom he 
has obtruded them ; thus paying off former crimes 
committed against the liberties of one people with 
crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives 
of another." That is what Jefferson said when he 



12 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

would show " a decent respect to the opinions of man- 
kind," by stating the causes which impelled the colonies 
to declare their independence. For more than fourscore 
years that passage has lain rusting, like a sword in its 
scabbard. But the malign Power which doomed it to 
such ignominy has been overthrown. We draw it 
forth to-day, amid the new glory which has risen upon 
us. We brandish aloft its reburnished blade, that it 
may flash across the sea the double record, — who it 
was that planted, and Avho that has uprooted the insti- 
tution of American slavery. 

Standing upon the. higher summits of the Declara- 
tion, as we now do, it is natural for us to review the 
path by which we have ascended. Homer, carefully 
enumerates, in the Second Book of the Iliad, the ships 
which bore the Greeks to the Trojan war. And it 
would be a serious neglect on this anniversary, did I 
fail to name some of the more important events which 
have brought us to our present position. The rush 
of events since the opening of the last Spring has 
indeed been overwhelming. We seem to be looking 
over the awful brow of Niagara ; and the voice of the 
cataract is the only voice that can utter our emotions. 
But let us go back from the downfall to the source 
of the mighty current, and follow it forward. 

The llebellion had its fountains far away in our 



TEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 13 

liislory. The little rills began to flow into each other 
after the Colonial period, and the large streams thus 
formed became more and more visible as the question 
of admitting new States was forced upon the country. 
At length all these streams of disloyalty were gath- 
ered into a single basin ; and then it was that we 
beheld the Lake Superior of treason, spreading itself 
broadly out in the full daylight, and kissing the bended 
cheek of England on its farther shore. That was the 
inland sea, around which we went shuddering through- 
out the year 1861, vainly expostulating with those who 
would trust their all to its waters. Before the year 
had dawned, a weak old man, soon to' vacate the high 
office which he had allowed treason to control, told 
us, in words that would have appalled our hearts had 
we been base enough to believe them, that the Re- 
bellion was \vrong, and that any forcible resistance of 
it would also be very wrong. There w^as nothing to 
do but stand, through a hundred terrible days, bowed 
in shame and chafing with a just rage, until the mighty 
Northwest should reach out its long arm and haul up 
our starry flag to the height from which it had fallen. 
That long arm never failed us, and it left the proud 
symbol floating securely when it vanished suddenly 
out of sii^ht. But how furious the storm in which 
the banner went up, and by which it was instantly 
assailed? The sea of Rebellion, changed to a foam- 



14 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

ing whirlpool after the first thunderclap at Charles- 
ton, swept into its broad circle State after State, 
senators, judges, churches, a large portion of the Army 
and Navy, and so much of the public property as 
could be placed in its way. "When our Congress met, 
on the -ith of July, the usurpation had an army with 
full ranks, superbly officered, well supplied and drilled, 
and every branch of its affairs, whether at home or 
abroad, was in able and experienced hands. Before 
the first leaves of Autumn fell, we had lost Ellsworth, 

— the rising star of our volunteer soldiery ; Senator 
Douglas, — from whose position and known loyalty much 
was expected ; Winthrop and Greble, — one a child 
of genius, the other a true son of Mars ; and General 
Lyon, who, more than any other loyal officer up to that 
time, had shown the qualities of a great commander. 
The humiliating battle of Bull Run had^been fought, 

— revealing disloyalty in high places, exposing our 
ignorance of the art of war, uncovering the approaches 
to the Capital, and sending a thrill of anguish and 
terror throughout the land. Later in the season came 
the surrender of Lexington, — opening Missouri to the 
foot of the invader ; the battle of Ball's Bluff, — costing 
us the lamented Baker, whose great popularity bound 
the Pacific to the Atlantic coast as with hooks of steel, 
and quenching the light in many New England homes ; 
and, toward the going out of the year, came the irreg- 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 15 

iilar capture of Mason and Slidell, and the advice ot 
the Earl of Derby to the British Government, " that 
outward-bound ships should signalize English vessels 
that war with America was probable." The attitude 
of the Border States had paralyzed the Administra- 
tion, and divided the sentiment of the North ; Congress 
could do little more than save itself from falling a prey 
to treason ; feelings of humanity compelled the Presi- 
dent to recognize " the Confederacy," so far as to 
treat with it for exchange of prisoners ; belligerent 
rights, and the moral power of sympathy had already 
been secured to it from the leading foreign powers, 
Ivussia, " faithful among the faithless," excepted ; and 
pirates were roaming over the high seas, commissioned 
by the arch-conspirator Davis, " to sink, burn, and 
destroy everything which flew the ensign of the so- 
called United States of America." 

But this carnival-year of treason was not without its 
signs of promise to us. The telegram of Secretary 
Dix to the special agent in New Orleans, " if any one 
attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him 
on the spot;" the heroism of Anderson and his de- 
voted comrades ; the sublime response to the first call 
for troops, Massachusetts, as of old, leading the van ; 
the elastic energy of the nation under the stunning 
blow of Bull Run ; the battle of Rich Mountain, sav- 
ing to us Western Virginia ; the capture of the forts 



] 6 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

at Ilatteras Inlet, under Admiral Stringham and Gen- 
eral Butler ; the glorious achievement of the Navy at 
Port Hoyal, under the lamented Dupont ; the stubborn 
and bloody fight near Belmont, where General Grant 
first gave token of that daring, coolness, modesty, stra- 
tegy, and invincible nerve, which have since won him 
our eternal gratitude ; the moral courage and wisdom 
of Mr. Seward, in appeasing the wrath of England 
over the afi"air of the " Trent ; " these events were all 
unmistakable omens that the triumphing of the wicked 
would be short. 

The huge volume of the Hebellion, thus sensibly 
diminished, now shrunk at a rapid rate. Tlie new year 
(1862) gave Mason and Slidell to England, by whom 
they were " coldly received ; " Edwin M. Stanton, the 
Cato among our heads of departments, became Secre- 
tary of War ; the battle of Mill Spring settled the issue 
in the Border States ; the capture of Forts Henry and 
Donelson, and of Eoanoke Island, brought the nation 
to its feet in a frenzy of delight ; Pea Ridge followed, 
crushing the Rebel cause in Missouri ; then came the 
Providential exploit of the first Monitor, swiftly aveng- 
ing the loss of the " Congress " and " Cumberland," 
and opening a new era in the history of naval warfare. 
On the heels of these victories treads that at Newborn, 
confirming our supremacy in Eastern North Carolina ; 
that at Winchester, where " Stonewall " Jackson was 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 17 

defeated and driven back ; and the terrific struggle of 
Pittsburg Landing, where unflinching determination 
again prevailed, chiefly through General Sherman, — 
" his martial features terrible," then, as ever, the Tela- 
monian Ajax of the war. We were puzzled, rather 
than made anxious, when we knew that Lee had evac- 
uated Manassas ; soon the coasts of Georgia and 
Florida were ours ; General Pope and Commodores 
Foote and Davis, had opened the Mississippi far down- 
wards ; and when New Orleans had surrendered to 
Farragut, who found the people there so insolent that 
he turned them over to General Butler, in that glad 
hour it seemed to us that we could already discern 
the angel of peace, his feet beautiful upon the moun- 
tains, bringing good tidings, and saying unto us, " Your 
God reigneth." 

Our God did reign. And because He loved us. He 
did not sufi"er us at that time to triumph. Again the 
Ilebellion began to unfold its narrowed volume. All 
eyes were now fixed upon the Army of the Potomac, — 
noblest Army the world has ever seen, — grand at last 
with the splendors of victory, as it was grand at first 
in the gloom of disaster. Wasted in its slow advance, 
after the barren successes at Yorktown and Williams- 
burg, it lay, the victim of an invisible destroyer, along 
the muddy slopes of the Chickahominy. General 

Banks, assailed by the combined forces of Jackson 
s 



18 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

and Ewell, had skilfully withdrawn his little army 
from the Valley of the Shenandoah. It was deter- 
mined that the force under McDowell should cover 
Washington, and not the right wing of the Army of 
the Potomac. Jackson was thus at liberty to co-operate 
with Lee against McClellan, whose plan for falling 
back had been discovered by Stuart's famous raid, and 
whose difficulties had been increased rather than less- 
ened, by the costly victories of Fair Oaks and Mechan- 
ics ville. The first attempt at withdrawal was the signal 
for furious pursuit. But our brave columns, though 
vastly outnumbered, were not once beaten in the field. 
Their march was not a retreat in the proper sense of 
the term ; and each time they turned upon the pur- 
suing legions of the foe, at Gaines's Mills, the Chicka- 
hominy, Peach Orchard and Savage's Station, White 
Oak Swamp and Malvern Hill, they sent those legions, 
mangled and disheartened, backward. It was not in 
the fighting, but through divided counsels, that the 
campaign proved a failure. The Army still supposed 
itself on the way to Hichmond, when the order came 
for it to move toward Washington. Then it was that 
the Rebellion rolled out its hidden masses. At Cedar 
Mountain it struck a blow that darkened many homes 
in New England ; and this was but the opening of 
the series of assaults which culminated in the second 
battle of Bull Run, and which swept on until met by 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 19 

an impassable barrier at South Mountain and Antie- 
tam. Nor did the sweep of the Rebellion seem to 
grow less, but only more vast, at the great battles of 
Fredericksburg, Murfreesboro,' and Chancellorsville. 
The elections in the North had been carried against 
the loyal cause, the assassination of Senator Sumner 
had been threatened in New York, and the Congress 
at Richmond had proposed an alliance with the States 
on the Pacific coast. 

But our God was reigning. The school of calamity 
had opened our eyes to see those four millions of 
blacks, who everywhere had a welcome for us, and 
whose forced labors enabled the Rebels to keep their 
armies in tlie field. Our Congress, whose achieve- 
ments for freedom we cannot too much admire, had 
smoothed the way for the President. With Slavery 
abolished in the District, and forever shut out from 
the Territories ; with Hayti fully recognized, the 
Fugitive Slave Law repealed, and the Confisca- 
tion Act passed, it was easy for Abraham Lincoln, 
pressed on by military necessity, to issue that decree 
of EMANCirATioN wliicli made him the saviour of his 
country, and of a race of men. Thoughts of foreign 
interference were now at an end ; and Heaven, though 
trying our faith for a time, at length began to smile. 
The enlistment of the blacks as soldiers rapidly fol- 
lowed ; and to our own Governor Andrew especially is 



20 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

due the high honor of urging that measure forward to 
complete success. On the fourth of July, 1863, the Ke- 
bellion had received its death wound. Vicksburg fell, 
involving the fall of Port Hudson, and thus opening the 
Mississippi; and victory settled on our banners at 
Gettysburg, after a contest which history, as I think, 
will pronounce the great and decisive battle of the 
war. 

I need not speak of the brave men who there fought. 
The classic genius of Everett, now immortal, has em- 
balmed their names ; and the matchless Eulogy of the . 
Martyr-President, has left nothing for eloquence or 
poetry to add. Now, upon the failure of the July 
riots, the llebellion withdrew into its inmost recesses, 
knowing that its life depended on keeping out of the 
way. The battle of Fort Wagner, costing us so dear ; 
and that at Chickamauga, revealing the great com- 
mander in General Thomas ; and others of less note, in 
the South and West, did not change the fixed course of 
events. Grant and Sherman, in their own close coun- 
sels, were forecasting the final campaign. General 
Burnside opened the gates of East Tennessee. The 
battle of ]Mission Hidge, and the storming of Lookout 
Mountain, where Hooker's warriors seemed to wield 
the artillery of the clouds, secured an open door into 
Georgia. Deeply pained, but unhindered, by the dis- 
aster on Red River, the new regiments rallied on the 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 21 

banks of the Rapidan under the Lieutcnant-General, 
and near Chattanooga mid'er his great subordmate. The 
Rebels were confused and bewildered in their hiding- 
places, not knowing what the omens foretokened. 
They comprehended the game only when they had 
lost it. The movement of Meade's army to the South 
of Petersburg, so costly but so necessary, and involving 
such immense sacrifice of life at Spottsylvania, the 
Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Coal Harbor, and on the 
banks of James River, closed the iron hand of fate 
upon the main army of the Rebellion. It was now 
dangerous for that army to remain stationary, and far 
more dangerous for it to attempt to move. The defeat 
of Sigel and Hunter, and the raids near Washington, 
could not loosen the stubborn hold of Grant. The 
failure of the assault planned by Burnside, and the 
pause of Sherman before Atlanta, sent the currency 
and the heart of the country down to their lowest point 
notwithstanding the glorious news from the " Kear- 
sarge," and the anxiety of the Rebels to treat for peace. 
But had certain politicians at that time read the pur- 
pose of the leading generals, they would not have 
advised the two wings of the Republican x^arty to drop 
their separate candidates and unite under some com- 
mon leader ; nor would certain other politicians have 
voted the war a failure, and clamored for an armistice 
.and a compromise- The grasp upon the throat of the 



22 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

Eebellion was not relaxed ; Sherman resumed his work 
upon its extremities, hurling' the fragments westward 
to be completely crushed by Thomas at Franklin and 
Nashville ; the bright pennant of Farragut floated vic- 
toriously off" the harbor of Mobile ; and Sheridan's ride 
in the Valley sealed the fate of the writhing victim. 
Every life sacrificed by the Southern leaders after that 
date was a murder. They knew their cause to be 
hopeless ; only their desperate pride sustained them. 
Victory carried the national election. The fall of 
Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, and Goldsboro' 
was but the eff"ect of a cause that had already operated. 
They went down like oaks in the still night after the 
hurricane has swept over them! The mad blows at 
Hatcher's Run and Fort Stcdman, which recoiled 
so terribly ; the quailing before Sheridan's swift squad- 
rons, all the way round from Lynchburg to Five Forks, 
the utter collapse, when the final word was given, " up 
boys, and at them," were an overthrow too awful for 
my poor description. I can but recur to the figure 
with which I began this recital. The long gathering, 
the now unfolding and now contracting waters, were 
forced to the precipice. In the mists rising out of the 
abyss into which they went thundering down, we saw 
calmly shining the bright bow of promise ; and our 
awed and swelling hearts could only exclaim, " The 
Lord God omnipotent reigneth." 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 23 

How shall I fitly impress you with the grandeur of 
this result to our country "? Let us first contrast the 
opening with the close of the Rebellion. Never before 
did treason start up so pompously, and perish so in- 
gloriously. At the secession of South Carolina, Mr. 
Keitt said : " We have carried the body of this Union 
to its last resting-place, and now we will drop the flag 
over its grave." But he is in a traitor's gory grave, 
and the flag still waves on high. When the conspira- 
tors met at Montgomery, Davis said, " the South is 
determined to maintain her position, and make all who 
oppose her, smell Southern powder, and feel Southern 
steel." But that steel and powder are ours to-day, and 
Davis — quantus muiatus ah illo — smells a gibbet in 
the air. Mr. Stephens said, " in the conflict, thus far, 
success has been on our side, complete throughout the 
leno-th and breadth of the Confederate States. It is 
upon [the enslavement of the African race] as I have 
stated, our social fabric is firmly planted ; and I cannot 
permit myself to doubt the ultimate success and full 
recognition of this principle throughout the civilized 
and enlightened world." But the only response to 
that atrocious sentiment, thus far, has been a universal 
cry of indignation ; and Mr. Stephens now has other 
use for his philosophy, in a fortress whose name (Fort 
Warren) reminds him of the revered martyr to liberty 
on Bunker Hill. After the outrage on Fort Sumter, 



24: PEACE UISDER LIBERTY. 

the Rebel Secretary of AVar said, " I will prophesy that 
the flag which now flannts the breeze here will float over 
the dome of the Capitol at Washington before the first 
of May. Let them try Southern chivalry and test the 
extent of Southern resources, and it may float event- 
ually over Faneuil Hall itself." The Governor of 
South Carolina also said, " we have humbled the flag 
of the United States. It is the first time in the history 
of this country that the Stars and Stripes have been 
humbled. It has been humbled, and humbled by the 
o-lorious little State of South Carolina." But the flag 
then " humbled " is exalted at length, and those who 
rolled the sacrilege as a " sweet morsel " under their 
tongues, are vagabonds and fugitives in the earth. 
The fate of all the leaders in the Rebellion gives a new 
meaning to the words of a king of Israel ; " Let not 
him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he 
that putteth it off"." Not only did they sell their birth- 
rio-ht, but that which they most feared has come upon 
them. We recall here the terrible lines of Addison, 
and, slightly changing them, exclaim : — 

" There is some cliosen curse, 
Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, 
Eed with uncommon wrath, to blast the wretch 
Who seeks his greatness in his country's ruin " 

The Rebellion begins and ends its career on a stage 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 2o 

where tranjedy and comedv struo-o-le together for the 
mastery. In its final shout, " Sic semper tj/rannis,'" we 
hear its own doom pronounced ; and it goes out of his- 
tory, as the body of the assassin has gone, into the 
bhickness of darkness forever. Around it hangs the 
memory of its great swelHng words ; of sacrilege to the 
bones of the dead ; of Fort Pillow massacres, St. Albans 
raids, yellow-fever plots, and attempts to burn cities 
full of women and children. A host of skeleton shadows 
from Libby, Saulisbury, and Andersonville flit above 
the place of its torment. It forever hears the horror 
and laughter of the world shouted after it. And if 
there be any words, in all the circle of literature, 
which it may fitly utter, they are : " Let the day perish 
wherein I was born ! Let it not be joined unto the 
days of the year, nor come into the number of the 
months ! Let no joyful voice come therein. Let 
them curse it that curse the day ; let the stars of the 
twilight thereof be dark." 

Respecting the change that has come over the aris- 
tocracy of England, I will be very brief. They are 
eating their own words at a rapid rate ; and the wry 
faces which they make, while " chewing the bitter 
cud," are our ample revenge. If they can afford to 
remember the indecent haste with which they listened 
to the conspirators ; with which they threatened war 
over the affair of the " Trent ; " Avitli which they vir- 

4 



26 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

tually became allies of the Rebellion ; we certainly can. 
Our disgust is stirred not a little at their eulogy of our 
Martyr-President, whom a short time before they had 
so insultingly maligned ; but if they can afford to 
extend such sympathy, we may well keep silent, and 
gratefully — smile. Lee and Johnston, and Forrest, 
and Taylor, and Kirby Smith, having surrendered, of 
course the surrender of England follows. Like a cer- 
tain Confederate General, she " surrenders uncon- 
ditionally on condition that she is unconditionally 
pardoned." The bills are rather large after that little 
pleasantry of the " Alabama." Our portly friend pro- 
tests that he didn't steal the butter and put it in his 
hat ; and therefore, though something very much like 
butter is streaming down his glowing cheeks, yet, if he 
sai/s he didn't, possibly he didn't. We mean that our 
memory shall be as short as England's ; that is, we will 
forget the hostility of the titled few, and remember the 
sympathy of the untitled many among her subjects. 

As for France and Mexico, we cannot forget the 
exposed heel of Achilles ; and we shall take care that 
no Paris, with poisoned arrow, wounds us to death on 
our Southwestern border. 

It might be thought ungenerous to contrast our 
present feelings with those of the vanquished ; let us 
therefore remember how we felt at the outbreak of 
the Pebellion, and from the contrast thus suggested 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 



loam the greatness of our cause for rejoicing. We 
shall never forget that Saturday on which Sumter 
fell, nor the Sunday next following. Least of all 
shall we ever forget the Sunday, next following the 
massacre of our loyal soldiers in Baltimore. Sabbaths 
we cannot call those days, for they brought no rest to 
us. We w^ere astounded, bewildered, appalled. We 
went unto the house of God, only to calm ourselves 
there under His great shadow, as we looked forth on 
the gathering tempest of war. Then we gazed down 
a horrible vista of devastation, famine, tears, blood, 
and wild disorder. We looked, " And behold a pale 
horse ; and his name that sat on him was Death, and 
Hell followed with him." We saw the iron-hoofed 
demon of war, — his neck clothed with thunder, pawing 
in the valleys, displaying the glory of his nostrils, 
swallowing the ground with fierceness and rage, saying 
among the trumpets, " Ha, ha ! " smelling the battle, the 
thunder of the captains, and the shouting ; we saw this 
mighty waster going forth to trample down all our beau- 
tiful civilization, to fill every house in the land with 
mourning, to turn the moon into blood, and cast the stars 
unto tlie ground like untimely figs. But lo, the vision is 
changed ! Another angel has sounded, even the angel 
of peace. We look up, and, behold, all the stars are 
in their- places. Their bands have not been loosed nor 
their sweet influence disowned. 



28 TEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

" The terrible steed lies with nostril all wide, 
And through it there rolls not the breath of his pride." 

Yes, the gloom and horror are behmd us, and the 
glory before. We lay aside the spirit of heaviness, 
and put on the bright apparel of joy. For He that 
now cometli — escorted by our returning conquerors — 
is meek and lowly. His coming is as showers upon 
the mown grass. We see waste places rejoicing at 
His approach, the wilderness budding and blossoming, 
the rose growing again in Sharon, the lily reappear- 
ing in the valley, the hills clothed with flocks and 
corn and the free floods clapping their hands. Up, 
come ye, let us spread our garments in the way ; let 
us cut down branches, and strew them before this 
King of Peace ! Let us go before, and follow after, 
and sing, " Be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors." 
Let the children, also, with their glad hosannas, swell 
our chorus of welcome. For Peace cometh, crowned 
with war s victories, to sway a benign sceptre over the 
land. 

Only a little more than four years ago we were 
bringing home, from the bloody pavement in Balti- 
more, our young soldiers, slain for rushing between the 
raised dagger of treason and the nation's life. Sorrow- 
ful indeed Avas that funeral ; for the air was thick 
with startling omens, and the tidings, coming on every 
pulse of the electric wires, smote us like the sirocco's 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 29 

breath. But to-day the g-rave of those martyrs is holy 
ground. You have recently made a pilgrimage to 
their sculptured monument, going with songs of joy, 
and with garlands in your hands, to tell to a thousand 
generations that Liberty does not forget, in the day of 
her triumph, those " who made their lives an offer- 
ing " for her sake. A little more than four years 
ago all our hearts were on board the " Star of the 
West,'' sailing into Charleston harbor, carrying food 
to a little band of starving men ; only to be warned 
back by a hostile shot, and to be forced to look on, in 
powerless indignation and shame, while the encircling 
batteries of treason vomited forth their inhuman fury 
upon that small and fainting company ; until the stars 
of our nationality went down, insulted but not dis- 
honored, into the smoke and flames of fratricidal war. 
But lo, the change ! A rod out of heaven has touched 
and transfigured the scene. Since the magnolias last 
bloomed, all our hearts have been on board another 
ship, bearing upon it some of the scarred veterans of 
freedom, and with them the heroic Anderson, who 
carried with him the same starry Symbol that first 
went down. This they lifted up to its former proud 
height, amid shoutings, the sobbings of joy, jubilant 
music, and thunders of loyal cannon. And thus was 
proclaimed, to all traitors, and the enemies of liberty 
everv where, that the covenant which makes these 



30 TEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

States a nation is an everlasting bond ; and that their 
Union — by the sweet ministries of peace, if possible, 
but, if necessary, by the thunderbolts of war — "must 
and shall be preserved." No vain boasting, no empty 
exultation, no vulgar triumph over the vanquished, 
but a solemn admonition to us and our children, and to 
all the world, that " whosoever falleth on this rock 
shall be broken, and on whomsoever it falleth it shall 
grind him to powder ! " 

But I proceed to some of the more lasting results 
of the war. Of its effect as realizing the spirit of 
the Declaration I liave already spoken. 

The triumph of our loyal arms has settled the ques- 
tion of sovereignty, as between the Union and the 
several States. It was said of the States of ancient 
Greece, that they lost their government by desiring 
severally to govern : Grecue civitates, diim imperare 
singuhs ciipiunt, imperium omnes perdlderunt. A similar 
fate threatened the American Republic, growing out of 
the heresy of State Sovereignty. But the war is at an 
end, and where are those Sovereign States ? Do they 
appear, to negotiate a peace with the Federal Gov- 
ernment { No; they cannot shield the assailants of 
the Union and Constitution. Those assailants find, 
as Roman traitors once found, that " they must answer 
at the bar of the assembly as criminals, not pretend to 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 81 

negotiate ^Yitll the Republic as equals." The States 
arc but municipalities ; in the goTcrnment of the whole 
country is vested the sovereign power. We have heard 
of treason against a State ; but we now see that such 
a crime is always relative to the Union. No State, 
acting primarily and independently, defines the crime 
of treason and prescribes its penalty ; it exercises that 
function only by virtue of its connection with the 
United States. Robert E. Lee, fancying the authority 
of Virginia paramount to that of the Eepublic, became 
a traitor ; Andrew Johnson, true to his primary rather 
than his secondary allegiance, maintained his loyalty. 
" But if the question of sovereignty was not settled 
before the war, and if Lee honestly believed Virginia to 
be sovereign, ought he to suffer the penalty of trea- 
son ? " Certainly not for that simple belief. But he 
went further. He did that which he had often seen 
defined as treason in the Constitution of his country. 
Let no one be punished for believing the abstract 
doctrine of State Sovereignty ; but let those who have 
made war upon the United States, and the whole 
country through them, be taught the horrible nature 
of their crime. Treason, as we now perceive, is not 
properly an off"ence against Massachusetts, or Virginia ; 
not the killing of a public servant, however high his 
office ; but an attempt to murder the sovereignty of the 
people of the United States. No other crime can 



32 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

compare with it in guilt. It is not merely hurling- a 
single planet from its sphere, but destroying the power 
of gravitation itself. Thank God, the thin pretext, 
from which so many have leaped into bloody Rebellion, 
is no more ! Like the gourd of Jonah, it has perished 
with the night in which it grew up. All the people of 
the land know now, that in case of collision between 
civil authorities, they owe a single paramount allegi- 
ance ; and that they owe it to the Government whose 
organic law defines high treason, and declares that 
Congress shall determine its penalty. 

The triumphant issue of the war has proved the 
power of an elective government to cope with armed 
Kebellion. Heretofore, the advocates of hereditary 
power have said, " Your government by the people, 
with universal suffrage and a change of rulers every 
four years, may do very well on a small scale, and 
while you are held together by the necessity of making 
common cause against other nations. But wait till 
you have a broad territory, and many competing in- 
terests among your citizens : and then, in case of any 
considerable revolt, see how soon your country will go 
to pieces. Your Government, resting as it does on the 
shoulders of the masses, will have for its chief man- 
agers men of inferior ability ; the brief tenure of office 
will not train great leaders ; your ablest men, seeing 
themselves but units in the mass, will lack patriotism ; 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 33 

in any threatening emergency, your nation will find 
itself unprepared." This reasoning was so plausible, 
and in part so philosophical, that some of us half 
believed it. Our hearts misgave us when we knew 
that certain of the States were banded together to 
destroy our Government. There did seem to be a want 
of patriotism among our ablest men ; there was a lack 
of trained leaders ; we were wofully unready to cope 
with the Rebellion. But one element in our fixvor, out- 
Aveighing all the advantages of a monarchy, had been 
too much overlooked. The people knew that the 
Government was their government, and its cause their 
cause. If it was dishonored, they were dishonored ; if 
it Avas lost, their earthly hopes were lost. No sophist- 
ries could blind them to the momentous issue. Hence 
the rush to arms. Hence the cheerful submission to 
taxes, and other necessary burdens and restraints. 
Hence the readiness to loan the nation whatever trea- 
sure it might need. Our first efforts were awkward 
and unsuccessful ; and, of those whom we tried as 
leaders, one after another failed. But the resources 
were vast; the determination to conquer grew more 
stern ; gradually Ave learned how ; and those who 
wished us evil, and our own doubting hearts, were 
taught that what a free people ivills it can perform. 
We have shown that the humblest man, if honest, can 
be the successful ruler of the miditiest nation on the 



34 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

globe. The people are too intelligent, too much dis- 
posed to justice and public order, to need intellectual 
giants in the chairs of state. The wolf, and the bear, 
and the lion have been subdued to the habits of the 
lamb and the ox ; " and a little child may lead them." 
The spirit of the people has made our rulers great. 
All fears respecting the stability of such a government 
as ours are forever dispelled. There is, in the nation, 
a centripetal power balancing its centrifugal power ; 
it may be as permanent as it is beneficent, as strong as 
it is free. Hitherto our Republic has been called an 
experiment ; it will be called so no longer. E-oyalists 
know this. They see that the weapon with which 
they have thus far defended their kings is wrested 
from them. They are asking themselves, with blanched 
cheeks, what they have done and said to us in the day 
of our trouble. 

Let me here give way a moment to the mouth-piece 
of the English aristocracy. Hear it: "It, has been 
vulgarly supposed that democracy is necessarily 
incompatible with strength and vigor of executive 
action, and that the concentration of power in a single 
despot is necessary for the conduct of a great war. 
That delusion the American struggle has dispelled. 
It has been thought that democracies were necessarily 
fickle to their rulers, unstable and wavering in their 
determination. That, too, tlie democracy of America 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 35 

]kis disproved. It has been said that democracies were 
necessarily violent and cruel in their disposition, and 
that from impatience of discipline and obedience they 
are unapt for military success. No man can say that 
now. It has been said that democracies would not 
support the expenses of war and the burdens of taxa- 
tion. This is proved not to be the case. No autocrat 
that the world has ever seen, has received a more firm 
and unbounded support, and commanded more unlim- 
ited resources than those which the American people 
have freely placed at the disposal of Mr. Lincoln. 
His re-election in 1H6-1 was evidence of the wise and 
prudent firmness of the people who exercised the 
suffrage, and the result ought to have left no doubt on 
the minds of thoughtful men as to the necessary issue 
of the great contest." Comment is needless. To such 
language every American patriot says, as the friend of 
Antonio said to Shylock — 

" I thank thee, Jew, for giving mc that word ! " 

The war has also proved that we are in no danger 
from military ambition. The soldiers of Ciesar and 
Napoleon were ready to follow their adored command- 
ers in any attempt at usurpation. Not so our soldiers. 
They know what they have been suffering and fighting 
for ; for a Government wliich belongs to themselves, 
and which not even their most admired general, for 



36 TEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

whom they wouhl die any moment, can be permitted in 
the smallest particnlar to usurp or disown. Thank 
God, the American people are able to discriminate in 
their gratitude. No renown of the warrior can so daz- 
zle them as to make them forget the proper subordina- 
tion of the military to the civil power. Henceforth 
we shall be less nervous at popular admiration lavished 

on the successful general. It is not the blind applause 
of an unthinking populace, but thanks rendered to one 
who is expected to be a benefactor in the future as 
well as in the past. We are deeply grieved that it has 
cost the hero of Atlanta so dear, or that any other 
hero's tripping should be the price of this valuable 
lesson ; and we are and always will be grateful to the 
man who could say to his troops, as Sherman did, in 
bidding them adieu after all that had happened, " be 
good citizens in peace as you have been good soldiers 
in war." 

Another result of the struggle has been to strengthen, 
rather than shake, the foundation of our liberties. The 
essential theory of the Government is not changed, but 
confirmed and made to operate on a larger scale. It 
is an axiom of history that civil wars are ended only 
by compromise. That axiom has failed for once. The 
rebellions of England have revolutionized her govern- 
ment, though nominally it is much the same. When 
kings come out of wars with their subjects, they never 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 



87 



after sit as firmly as before on their thrones. They 
must humor the people, and yield more or less of the 
reality for the sake of the semblance of power. But 
our Government has not yielded anything to the Rebels 
^et, and will be guilty of a foolish act if it ever does. 
Its basis is broader and deeper to-day than when the 
war began. The people understand its spirit better, 
and are wedded to it by a more determined loyalty. 
The great problems forced upon their attention, have 
taught them their duties and revealed to them their 
rights. And the Institution with which they might 
have been tempted to compromise has ceased to exist. 
Was the way of the wdcked ever more utterly turned 
upside down 1 The attempt was to assassinate Liberty ; 
the result is that Slavery has been cast into an igno- 
minious grave. The attempt was to rivet the chains of 
bondage on a race of men ; the result is that they are 
and ever shall be free. The attempt was to carry a 
monstrous wrong upward to our Northern border ; the 
result is that freedom and the right have been carried 
downward to our Southern border. This is a new 
feature in the history of rebellions. It teaches us that 
they " fight against the stars in their courses " who 
fight against the rights of man ; that, as under the 
throne so upon the throne, the march of human liberty 
is forever onward, When it rises up none can hinder, 
and when it strikes none can stand. 



38 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

The war has also deepened the aiFection of the peo- 
ple for the Union, in all parts of the land. The suffer- 
ing and glory it has occasioned are a common heritage. 
The East and West can never forget that they have 
stood shoulder to shoulder throughout the terrible 
struggle — that they have rejoiced together over the 
same victories, and wept together over the same 
reverses. The blood of their sons has flowed together 
on a hundred battle-fields, and those sons are now 
sleeping side by side in the soldier's grave. Nor do 
we doubt that the era of wiser counsels and kindlier 
feeling, is coming to the people of the South ; when 
they also, having learned the real cause of their 
troubles, shall reach forth a fraternal hand unto those 
who have broken the yoke ofan Oligarchy from off 
their necks. Yes, it is our country ; our one country ; 
our redeemed and renovated country, that every Ameri- 
can heart embraces to-day. We of the East can never 
resign our share in the glory of Sherman's army, 
and they of the West will ever claim that the army 
which conquered Lee was theirs. No patriot, from the 
Mississippi to the Pacific Coast, will ever admit to 
himself that the tomb of Abraham Lincoln is in a 
foreign country ; and we who have " seen his star in 
the East " can never endure a strange flag waving over 
that shrine, as we go thither, with our sweet spices, 
to remember whom he loved and for whom he was 
offered. 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 39 

I will name but one other result of the war, itself an 
effect of the results already named. The question of 
Sovereignty settled, the power of cohesion in a free 
government proved, and the Republic raised to leader- 
ship among the nations, our character as a people 
will naturally improve. Not that the American people 
have been especially bad, but they are in a condition 
to grow better. The consciousness of power begets a 
feeling of repose. It gives steadiness and self-poise to 
both nations and men. If Southern " chivalry " had 
been more genuine, it would have boasted less. If our 
country had been more truly " the home of the free,"' 
the shouts for freedom would have been less noisy. 
Those friends abroad who expect that we shall be made 
vain-rjlorious and insolent bv our success, are mistaken. 
Being sure of our position, we shall lose our sensitive- 
ness, and grow calmer and more self-possessed. Our 
nationality is vindicated. Other governments, con- 
temptuous once, now look toward us with respect and 
fear. But their fear is groundless, so long as their 
treatment of us is just. The war has not made us a 
military people ; but only shown that when we must 
fight we fight through to victory. Standing on our 
high places, we shall not breathe out slaughter against 
other nations, but the rather overlook their impotent 
unfriendliness. This new dignity will be promotive of 
peace everywhere. It will bring forth in us more of 



40 PExVCE UNDER LIBERTY. 

the fruits of manly virtue. Ceasing to fear criticism, 
we shall be less criticized. The opinions of foreigners 
will not disturb us much hereafter. We shall learn to 
be content, and modestly proud, in the enjoyment of 
our own history, our own institutions, our own simple 
manners and customs. It is respectable now to be a 
citizen of the United States, — respectable anywhere. 
We have only to keep quietly in our place. We have 
a character, and that character will give a charm to 
American life. Those who have taunted us hitherto 
will henceforth treat us with deference. They will find 
a new merit in our literature, a new refinement in our 
society, — grace and dignity where all was vulgar and 
trivial before. We shall learn that success, as well as 
a good deed, shines very far " in a naughty world," 
that it transforms a nation of plebeians into a nation of 
patricians, that it changes the worthless into the " most 
worshipful." Heretofore America has imitated Europe; 
hereafter Europe will imitate America. And the influ- 
ence of this new treatment, instead of puffing us up, 
will beget in us all a sober self-respect. It will render 
us a calmer people ; will make us content with our 
citizenship, and all the simple republican customs 
bequeathed to us. Thus shall the most lasting, the 
grandest, the richest result of the mighty struggle be 
secured. 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 41 

I now come to the most grateful, and withal the 
tenderest portion of my task. It is the offering of our 
united thanks unto those who have achieved for us the 
priceless boon. Soldiers from the Army and Navy, once 
soldiers but now again citizens, we hail you to-day as 
our benefactors and deliverers. We welcome you 
home from the fatigues of the march, the wearisome 
camp, and the awful ecstacy of battle. Through four 
terrible years you have looked without quailing on the 
ghastly visage of war. You have patiently borne the 
heats of Summer and the frosts of Winter. You have 
cheerfully exchanged the delights of home for the 
hardships of the campaign or blockade. Not only the 
armed foe, but the wasting malaria has lurked along 
your resistless advance. You know the agony and the 
transport of the deadly encounter. How many times, 
standing each man at his post, in the long line of 
gleaming sabres and bayonets, every hand clenched and 
every eye distended, you have caught the peal of your 
leader's clarion, and sprung through the iron storm to 
the embrace of victory ! But all that has passed away. 
Tlie mangled forests are putting on an unwonted ver- 
dure, the fields once blackened by the fiery breath of 
war are now covered with their softest bloom, and the 
vessels of commerce are riding on all the national 
waters. The carnage, the groans, the cries for succor, 
the fierce onset and sullen recoil, the thunders of the 

6 



42 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

artillery, and the missiles screaming like demons 
in the air, have given way to peeans, civic proces- 
sions and songs of thanksgiving. The flag of your 
country, so often rent and torn in your grasp, and 
which you have borne to triumph again and again, 
over the quaking earth or through the hurricane of 
death in river and bay, rolls out its peaceful folds 
above you, every star blazing with the glory of your 
deeds, in token of a nation's gratitude. We come forth 
to greet you, — sires and matrons, young men and 
maidens, children and those bowed with age ; to own 
the vast debt which we can never pay, and to say, from 
full hearts, " We thank you, God bless you ! " 

But while we thus address you, you are thinking of 
the fallen. With a soldier's generosity you wish they 
could be here to share in the thrice -earned welcome. 
Possibly they are here, from many a grave in which 
you laid them after the strife ; pleased with these fes- 
tivities, and with the return of joy to the nation, but far 
above any ability of ours either to bless or to injure. 
You may tarnish your laurels, or an envious hand may 
pluck them from you. But your fallen comrades are 
exposed to no such accident. They are doubly fortu- 
nate, for the same event which crowned them with 
honor has placed them beyond the possibility of losing 
their crown. Many of them died in the darkest hours 
of the Republic ; others in the early dawn of peace, 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 43 

"while "■ the morning stars were singing together." But 
victory and defeat make no differences among them 
now. They all have conquered in the final triumph. 
Their names will alike thrill the coming ages, as loftily 
spoken by the tongues of the eloquent; and their 
deeds will forever he chanted by immortal minstrels. 
They were together " brave men, who repose in the 
public monuments, all of whom alike, as being worthy 
of the same honor, the country buried, not alone the 
successful or victorious ; and justly, for the duty of 
brave men was done by all, their fortune being such as 
God assigned to each." 



•^o' 



" By fairy hands their knell is rung, 
By forms unseen their dirge is sung ; 
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray, 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; 
And Freedom shall awhile repair, 
To dwell a weeping hermit there." 

And ye know, departed soldiers of the Eepublic, that 
your President was a partaker in your " last full mea- 
sure of devotion." Yes, you have him, for you deserve 
him more than we. Have you left many widows on 
the earth ? Among them the wife of Abraham Lincoln 
is one. Are your fatherless children now waiting for 
us to pay over to them a little of the great debt we 
owe ? Among them the children of Abraham Lincoln 



44 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

mourn a father gone to be with you. The man so 
exalted, whose summons drew you from happy homes 
to be offered on the aUars of war, has himself followed 
in the sacrificial column. His mortal form is laid as 
low as yours. It can no longer be said that he called 
you to a death which did not threaten him. O, ye 
sightless couriers of the air, waiting around that new- 
made sepulchre at Springfield, take up this truth — the 
invisible Republic where President and people still are 
one — and bear it abroad on gentle wings, and reveal it 
tenderly to every poor heart that bemoans a husband, 
or son, or friend, or brother slain ! In the words of an 
ancient orator, " It becomes us to honor the dead, and 
to lament the living. For what pleasure, what consola- 
tion remains to them? They are deprived of those 
who love them, but who preferring virtue to every con- 
nection, have left them fatherless, widowed and forlorn. 
Of all their relations, the children, too young to feel 
their loss, are least to be lamented ; but most of all the 
parents, who are too old ever to forget it. They nour- 
ished and brought up children to be the comforts of 
their age, but of these, in the decline of life, they are 
deprived, and with them of all their hopes. We shall 
best honor the dead, then, by extending our protection 
to the living. We must assist and defend their widows, 
protect and honor their parents, embrace and cherish 
their orphans. Who deserve more honor than the 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 45 

dead ? Who are entitled to more sympathy than their 
kindred ? " 

Nor in the field alone, has the meed of a nation's 
thanks been earned. At home the fair have toiled and 
waited for the brave. The flame on the altar of Hymen, 
Avhich has burnt low while there was sterner work to 
do, will be kindled afresh at the return of the saviours 
of the country. The Soldiers' Aid Societies, the San- 
itary and Christian Commissions, and the records of all 
our military hospitals, are an eternal monument to 
woman's patriotism and woman's love. And as, in the 
past, they have chosen to be widows of brave men 
rather than the wives of cowards, so now, neither scar 
nor crutch, nor artificial limb, will damage the suit of 
those who deserve the fair. Soldiers, while we applaud 
your heroism, there is also due, from you, a recognition 
of services by those Avho have not stood at the front. 
As I am enough of a civilian to speak their gratitude 
to you, so I have been enough of a soldier to return 
tlianks in your name to them. They have exerted 
tliemselves to the utmost that you might lack no per- 
sonal comfort, and that the sinews of war might ever 
be tense and strong. And as the various classes of 
loyal citizens look around upon one another to-day, each 
esteeming others better than himself, perhaps the truest 
word we can utter is that the whole loyal people of the 



46 PEA.CE UNDER LIBERTY. 

land, wherever any may have struggled or toiled, are 
the real and the only chief hero of the w^ar. 

We cannot forget, in this glad hour, how much we 
owe to the patriotic statesmen of former days. The 
noble record of the last two Congresses is but the car- 
rying forward of what their predecessors had begun. 
We remember the perils and speak gently of the mis- 
takes, while we admire what we will believe was the 
purpose of those men. It is not in our hearts to doubt 
on which side of the line of battle Rufus Choate would 
have stood, had he lived to see that line clearly drawn. 
In no man was the sentiment of nationality ever more 
intense than in him. '' The Union broken up 1 " we 
can hear him exclaim with that preternatural voice of 
his, " never, while there's enough of Plymouth Rock 
left to make a gun flint of! " This whole bloody war 
has been but the old battle between Webster and Cal- 
houn, fought through with other weapons and on a 
broader stage. Their thoughts have sped from the 
mouths of contending cannon , their words have clashed 
in the fierce shock of encountering steel. Their spirits 
have struggled in the air while loyalty and treason 
were struggling on the plain below. They have shud- 
dered or smiled, as each one has seen his idea smitten 
down or winning the day. And when the final acclaim 
of the armies of the Union went up, could we not 
almost see the sullen ghost of Calhoun turning away 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 47 

into the darkness 1 Could we not again hear Webster's 
voice coming to us in the grand music of the ocean, 
across his tomb at Marshfiekl, and saying, " the asi:»ira- 
tion of my hfe is attained? I now do behokl the 
gorgeous ensign of the Repubhc known and honored 
throughout the earth ; full high advanced, its arms and 
trophies streaming in more than their original lustre, 
not a stripe erased nor a star obscured ; and every- 
where, spread all over in characters of living light, 
blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea 
and over the land, and in every wind under the whole 
heaven, there is emblazoned that sentiment, dear to 
every American heart — Liberty and Union, now and 
forever, one and inseparable." 

You will not deem it merely a professional act in 
me, my friends, if I remind you that to God is due our 
supreme gratitude to-day. This obligation you have 
recognized in the service of prayer. The war has 
renewed our faith in a Divine Providence controlling 
the destinies of nations, and without which not a sjjar- 
row falleth. His throne has rested firmly on the 
vexed sea of Rebellion, and He has wielded all its 
wrath for our complete deliverance. In the first shot 
at Sumter we heard the voice of God saying, " arise, 
my people ; " and in the last shot at Ford's Theatre we 
saw Him delivering over the sword of justice into the 
hands of one who believes that " treason is a crime, 



48 PEACE U^■DER LIBERTY. 

and not merely difference of opinion," All along He 
has sent us defeats when our cause needed them. 
Many a deliverance has been so unexpected, and from 
sources so ne\Y and strange, that we could only say, 
" it is the Lord's doing ;" nor did He permit the 
crowninsf success to come until liberty had been 
assured to all the inhabitants of the land. Perhaps 
there is no pious word on record, more expressive of 
what we should feel to-day, than Admiral Farragut's 
order after the taking of New Orleans : " Eleven 
o'clock this morning is the hour appointed to return 
thanks to Almighty God for his great goodness and 
mercy. At that hour the church pennant will be 
hoisted on every vessel of the fleet, and their crews 
assembled, will, in humiliation and prayer, make their 
acknowledgments therefor, to the Great Dispenser of 
all human events." Following this bright example, 
and that of manv loval fjovernors and brave i^enerals, 
and of our departed and our living President. — nay, 
indeed, speaking from the deep impulse of our own 
thankful hearts. — it is unto the Lord that we sini^ our 
new song, for he it is that hath done marvellous 
things : -• His rifjht hand and His holv arm have 2:ot- 
ten Him the victory." 

Let it not be inferred, from the tenor of these 
remarks, that I see no peril in the future. What shall 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 49 

be the treatment of the disloyal, and what the basis of 
citizenship in the reconstructed States, are questions of 
grave concern. 

Are we exhorted to be kind to the Rebels ? That 
appeal is needless. We shall be kind to them. Manv 
of us have very tender reasons for treating them 
kindly. We always have been kind to them ; erring 
on that side, and yielding to their unjust demands, until 
they inferred that we could not be aroused to maintain 
our rights. We may accept it as an axiom, that the 
people of the Xorth cannot be cruel towards the 
leaders in the South. All our danger, then, is on the 
other side. Let us not give other nations occasion to 
say that we make a commodity of justice. Let not 
the offenders themselves despise us for fearing to vin- 
dicate the majesty of the Eepublic. Will good citi- 
zens feel altogether safe, in our country, if it is to 
have admired Eebels roaming at large in all parts of it 
for a generation to come ? Let us not be so kind to 
the disloyal as to be unkind to the loyal. Should not 
those in the South who have fought on our side be 
cared for before those who have fou2:ht as-ainst us ? 
Those who have been true to the Government should 
be protected first. This is justice, whose claims are 
sacred. Xor is it magnanimity, but a crime which 
nature abhors, to cherish enemies who are outraging 
our friends. Shall we leave the blacks in the power 

7 



50 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

of the exasperated foe, knowing, as we do, that the 
savage spite which cannot touch us will be wreaked 
upon their unsheltered heads'? I shall believe that 
the revolt of the rebel angels has succeeded, and that 
Satan now sits on the throne of God, if such horrible 
treachery can exist and go unscourged of heaven ! 
While the Saviour of men was riding in triumph to 
Jerusalem, " He beheld the city, and wept over it." 
But those tears did not prevent Him from saying, 
" Behold your house is left unto you desolate." Imitat- 
ing that divine act to-day, we raise our bitter cry over 
prostrate treason, even while we call on Justice to draw 
out her sharp sword. There is no malignity in our 
hearts, but a reverent prayer that the sovereignty of 
the nation may be magnified and made honorable. 
They would have it so. They trampled on our for- 
bearance and warnings, and defied the power which 
should be " a terror to evil doers." Let justice be 
done without the least over doing. Let their doom be 
so reasonable that no wicked sympathy shall dare to lift 
its head. Let them be put where no " foreign corre- 
spondent " can glorify them ; where no unfriendly court 
can make use of them ; where no lying pens of their 
own can fill the world with histories of their treason 
disguised as patriotism, and of their attempt to na- 
tionalize barbarism painted as a struggle for human 
liberty. Let them be so punished that their example 



TEACE UNDER LIBERTY. ^^ 51 

can never prove contagious, and be buried where the 
bloodhounds of despotism can never scent their 
graves ! 

Two acts of the struggle for liberty in America are 
past ; the third and consummating act is now upon us. 
The first act closed under Washington, when the Colo- 
nies were acknowledged to be free and independent 
States ; the second act closed under Lincoln, with the 
vindication of the sovereignty of the Union ; the third 
act will close when equal political rights are conceded 
to all men. God grant that the last act may not, like 
the first two, deluge the land with blood ! May the 
evil tree be plucked up in the hour of its weakness, 
before its roots have undergrown and its branches 
overspread the Republic. The Emancipation Procla- 
mation was but incidental to the war for the Union. 
Not in the purpose of man, but by the arrangement of 
God, it has knocked oft' the chains of the slave. And it 
has done a negative, rather than a positive work. It 
has delivered the blacks from chattel slavery, but it has 
not introduced them into civil liberty. How this last 
act shall be achieved is the problem now forced upon 
the country. Our statesmen cannot evade it if they 
would ; it is taxing their wisdom beyond any other ques- 
tion of the hour ; and whoever solves it successfully will 
complete the grand American triumvirate. We could 
wish that the triumvirate, when full, might read — 



52 g. PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

Washington, Lincoln, Johnson. Do any say that it is 
inconsistent to demand citizenship for the blacks in the 
States now returning to the Union, while in many of 
the so-called Free States only the whites are admitted 
to the ballot? But the people of these latter States 
have not rebelled. Security for the future may re- 
quire of disloyal communities what should not be 
exacted of the loyal. Only those who have broken 
the peace are put under bonds to keep the peace. 
" But the question of suffrage belongs to the States." 
So it does, while they are in their normal condition. 
Perhaps the day of military necessity is over ; but is 
there not a necessity of state quite as pressing, which, 
if not yielded to, will ultimately become a military 
necessity? If you cannot do a righteous deed for its 
own sake, yet doing it to prevent war is better states- 
manship than waiting for the war to come. A free 
government can be said to fulfil its purpose only when 
no class of persons under it has wrongs to be re- 
dressed. Emancipation is but a mockery of the 
blacks, especially while among their late masters, if 
they be not admitted to citizenship. Perhaps it "did 
not occur to Mr. Lincoln, perhaps he thought it un- 
wise at the time, to make his Proclamation perfect by 
adding to it: "And, that the promises herein con- 
tained may not prove illusory in the end, I do also pro- 
claim, and cause to be published and proclaimed, that, 



PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 53 

in reconstructing the State governments now disor- 
ganized, the blacks shall be admitted to all the rights 
of freemen on the same conditions with the whites." 
How much present anxiety would have been prevented 
by some such golden clause ! But we will believe that 
the question is in safe hands. Surely the Congress, if 
made wise by the events of the past, will not " guarantee 
a republican form of government " to any State, while 
there is manifestly, in that State, a spirit hostile to the 
very principles of republicanism. To the loyalty, wis- 
dom, and patriotism of our statesmen we confide this 
grave concern. They alone can decide it peacefully ; 
and may God have them in his holy keeping ! 

Anticipating the gradual solution of all remaining 
difficulties, in a manner which shall fulfil the hopes of 
a generous patriotism, I see, before our country, a 
future too grand for my feeble portrayal ; a development 
of the resources of nature, a growth of manufactures, 
a commerce, civilization, and Christianity, which shall 
be the glory of the New World and the wonder of the 
Old. No man, standing at the sources of the Amazon, 
can bring within the range of his vision all its mighty 
course from the mountains to the sea ; — its broad 
tributaries with their interlacing streams ; its silent 
advance through primeval forests, and vaster sweep 
across luxuriant savannas ; the sails of adventurers, 
and of scientific explorers, moving up into its alluring 



54 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 

mystery ; the inexhaustible wealth of field and mine to 
which it is a natural highway ; the current, so like an 
ocean, with which it proudly yields at last to the 
ocean's embrace. And so, standing to-day by the 
sources of this new stream in American history, we 
cannot foresee all its unfolding volume ; its distant 
greatness, and grandeur, and majesty ; the destinies, 
mortal and immortal, of both nations and individuals, 
which it will gather upon its ample bosom, and bear 
onward and onward, into the unbounded hereafter. 
We can only lift up our overflowing hearts toward 
Him whose rod has brought the water out of the rock, 
and ask that He would direct its wondrous course ; 
draining the richness of all the civilizations into it, and 
causing it to bless the ages through which it shall roll, 
until it mingles in that sea of latter-day glory, whose 
law is peace, and whose tides and waves are the pulsa- 
tions of a perfect love. 



THE CELEBRATION. 



THE CELEBRATION. 



The Committee of the City Council for making tlie necessary 
arrangements to celebrate the eighty-ninth anniversary of the 
Declaration of American Independence, July 4, 18G5, was ap- 
pointed February 18, and consisted of Aldermen John S. 
Tyler, Geo. W. Messlnger, L. Miles Standish, Charles F. 
Dana, Geo. W. Sprague, Nathaniel C. Nash, and Edward F. 
Forter ; Councilmen Wm. B. Fowlc, John Miller, W. W. 
Elliott, N. J. Bean, Wm. W. Warren, Joseph Allen, F. W. 
Falfrey, John P. Ordway, S. II. Loring, J. C. Ilaynes, 
S. B. Stebbins, M. W. Richardson, and Sumner Crosby. 

By invitation of tlic Committee, His Honor Mayor Lincoln 
was invited to consult with them, and to act with and for them 
on public occasions. Before the time had arrived for making 
definite and precise preparations for the celebration, the War 
came to an end, and it was considered on all hands that the 
Fourth of July ought to be signalized by demonstrations of joy 
even more extensive than have heretofore been customary. The 
appropriation was accordingly increased by the City Council, 
and the Connnittee devoted themselves to perfecting a pro- 
gramme of celebration which would gratify all classes and suit 
all proper tastes. The elements marred the full success of some 



58 THE CELEBRATION. 

of the entertainments, but, as a whole, it is believed the celebra- 
tion was satisfactory to the public, and a fit exposition of the 
prevalent happy state of feeling in the community. 

According to custom, the bells were rung at sunrise, noon, 
and sunset, and salutes were fired upon the Common, by Capt. 
French's 2d Battery, at the same hours. 



DECOEATIONS. 

The City Hall, and other public buildings and places were 
decorated freely with flags, mottoes, shields, &c. From the 
line crossing Chauncy Street was suspended a shield, bearing on 
one side the motto : ' ' The security of the American Republic 
rests in the equality of human rights." (Reverse side.) " God 
bless the Union ! It is dearer to us for the blood of our brave 
men shed in its defence." At the entrance to the Common, by 
Park Street, a large and beautiful banner motto was suspended. 
On the front side was the motto : ' ' We exult that a Nation has 
not fallen." On one side of this motto was a figure of Justice, 
with the scales, &c. On the other side the Goddess of 
Liberty. On the reverse side of this banner a motto : "A 
new birth of Freedom," with the figure '65 underneath, flanked 
by a representation of the soldier and sailor. A similar ban- 
ner, with the following mottoes, was at the Boylston and 
Charles streets entrance: " One Flag — One Government." 
(Reverse.) " The Union, it must be preserved." 

On Beacon Street Mall, where tables were set for a collation 
to the "Veteran Soldiers," for nearly 350 feet, flags and 
other bunting were extended on both sides, and up into the 



THE CELEBRATION. 59 

trees, in sucli a manner as to create a very picturesque effect. 
At the entrance, opposite AValnut Street, was a large canvas 
sliield, l)eariiig the motto : — 

*' Honor to the galhxnt defenders of the Star-Spangled 
Banner." 

Nearer the foot of the Mall was another shield, on which 
were the mottoes: "What the fathers gained in blood may 
the sons preserve by virtue!" and "Liberty and Union, one 
and indivisible, noAV and forever ! " 

There was also attached to the trees bordering this display 
of buntiniT the names — Abraham Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, 
Hooker, Burnside, Hancock, Howard, and Sedgwick, on one 
side of the Mall, and on the opposite were the following names 
in similar order : Richmond, Vicksburg, Shenandoah Valley, 
Knoxville, Antietam, Wilderness, Petersburg, Fredericksburg, 
Gettysburg, and Chancellorville. 

The following mottoes were hung at the places designated, 
with flags : — 

Across Winter Street, at Music Hall : — 

"Indemnity for the past and security for the future; the 
noblest indemnity and the strongest security ever won, be- 
cause founded in the redemption of a race." 

Reverse side — "All honor to the Army and Navy of the 
United States. Animated by a love of their country, they 
went forward at its call, and have reaped what they well de- 
served — th.e Nation's gratitude." 

Across ^Merchants Row from Faneuil Hall to Market : — 

"I leave you, hoping that the lamps of Liberty will burn 
in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all 
men are created free and equal." — AiiiiAU.m LmcbLN. 



60 THE CELEBRATION. 

Eeverse side — " All honor to the Citizen Soldiers of Mas- 
sachusetts ! In the War for Independence in 1776, and in 
the War for Freedom in 1861, foremost to defend and prompt 
to shed their blood in support of man's inalienable right to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 

Across Washin2;ton Street from Boston Theatre : — 

' ' Washington promulgated our principles — Warren died 
in their defence. We intend to perpetuate them." 

Reverse side — ' ' The memories of the fathers are the in- 
spirations of her sons." 

A MOENING CONCERT 

was given upon the Common, at 7 o'clock in the morning, 
and was listened to with apparent gratification by many thou- 
sand people. The musicians numbered eighty, under the 
direction of j\Ir. B. A. Burditt, and the pieces played were as 
follows : — 

Hail Columbia. 

Russian National Hymn. 

Medley of Popular Airs. 

England's National Hymn. 

Dirge in Memory of President Lincoln. 

Hallelujah Chorus. 

French National Air. 

Ireland's National Air. 

German Fatherland. 

Our Country's National Airs. 

Old Hundred. 



THE CELEBRATION. 61 



THE CHILDRENS CELEBRATION. 

JMui^ical and otlier entertainments, chiefly for the children of 
the Public Schools, were provided during the day at Music 
Hall, Andrews Hall, and the Boston Theatre. These enter- 
tainments were under the management of a Committee of the 
AVarren Street Chapel, subject to the directions of the Sub- 
committee on Children's Celebrations. At the Music Hall, 
before and after the Oration, at 9, 3^, and 5^^ o'clock, three 
National Organ Concerts were given by jNlr. G. E. Whiting 
and :\Irs. L. S. Frohock. At Andrews Hall, at 9, 11, 1, 3, 
and 5 o'clock, there were exhibitions of natural magic, legerde- 
main, ventrih)quism, and Punch and Judy, by Henry Bryant. 
At the Boston Theatre there was dancing and promenade, with 
full bands of Music, from 9i to 1, and 2 Mo 6 o'clock. All 
these places were fully attended. 

At the ]Music Plall, during the interval between the fourth 
and fifth performances on the programme of the first concert 
in the morning, His Honor Mayor Lincoln entered, escorting 
General Anderson and Admiral Farragut, who were greeted 
with loud cheers and tempestuous applause, waving of hats and 
handkerchiefs, every one rising in their seats. 

The gentlemen being seated and the tumult subsiding, tlie 
Mayor came forward and said : — 

My Friends : I thought to have the pleasure of introducing U) 
you our noble guests here, Init I perceive tliat they are already 
introduced and recognized by you, — bound to you heart to 
heart. Still, I Avill do myself the honor formally to present to 
you \'icc-Adniiral Farragut. 



62 THE CELEBRATION. 

Atlmiral Farragut rose amid renewed and vociferous ap- 
plause, and as soon as he could obtain silence, said : — 

" It affords me great pleasure to return thanks to you for this 
greeting, and after an absence of forty years to meet you on 
this glorious day." 

The Mayor : ' ' And now for the hero of Fort Sumter :" 
(Great applause.) 

General Anderson rose and said : — 

" I can only thank you, as I do, from the bottom of my heart." 

During the enthusiastic demonstrations of the audience which 
ensued. Miss Hattie Lincoln, daughter of His Honor the Mayor, 
presented to Admiral Farragut an elegant bouquet, and Miss 
Addie Standish, daughter of Alderman Standish, presented a 
similar one to General Anderson. 

Mr. James R. Elliott than sang in fine style, " Columbia, the 
gem of the ocean," the audience joining in the chorus. 

While sin<2:in2: the last verse, Mr. Elliott turned toward Gen- 
eral Anderson and Admiral Farragut, singing these lines : — 

" May tlic wreaths they have worn never wither, 
Nor the stars of their glory grow dim ! 
May the service united ne'er sever, 

But they to their colors prove true ! 
Oh ! the Army and Navy forever ! 
Three cheers for the Red, White, and Blue ! " 

Which were received with loud applause. Alderman George 
W. Messinger then presented two very handsome bouquets to 
Misses Lincoln and Standish, and soon after His Honor the 
Mayor and his distinguished guests retired, and drove to 
Andrews Hall, Avhcre the General and Admiral were received 



THE CELEBRATION. 63 

with cliccrs from tlic clilldren, who, at the INLiyor's request, 
tlien sanf^ a verse of " The Star-Spangled Banner." They 
tlience proceeded to the Boston Theatre, the audience rising and 
the band in tlie balcony phaying "Hail to the Chief," as they 
entered and advanced up the platform to the front of the stage, 
the young misses on the floor encirtling the area in a double 
line. 

Silence being restored. His Honor Ma^^or Lincoln said : — 

*' I beg to congratulate you all on the happy auspices of this 
occasion, and to present to you Vice- Admiral Farragut and 
Major-General Robert Anderson." 

General Anderson thus replied to the loud applause of the 
youthful assembly : — 

"My little friends, I wish that I could take you all by the 
hand and tliank you fur this welcome." (Great applause.) 

Admiral Farragut said : — 

" It affords me the deepest gratification to meet you on this 
glorious day, and to thank you for this complimentary recep- 
tion." (Great applause and cheers.) 

Nine young ladies in costume then came forward and danced 
the Highland Fling in a manner which was loudly applauded 
by the spectators. Mayor Lincoln and party withdrew shortly 
after, the band playing the National airs, and the large assembly 
cheering enthusiastically. 

THE PROCESSION 
was formed at City Hall (corner of Bedford and Chauncy 
streets) at ten o'clock. The Chief Marshal was Brevet Brig. 
Gen. Wm. S. Tilton, who was assisted by Col. P. U. Guiney, 



64 THE CELEBRATION. 

Maj. J. Henry Sleeper, Capt. Nathan Applcton, and II. W. 
Tilton, Esq. as aids, and by the following assistant marshals : 
Lieut. Col. P. T. Hanley, Maj. J. W. Mahan, Capt. W. T. W. 
Ball, Capt. M. F. O'Hara, Capt. Wm. A. Hill, Lieut. C. F. 
Williams, Maj. W. T. Eustis, 3d, Maj. K. T. Lombard, Capt. 
Geo. D. Putnam, Capt. J. P. Jordan, Lieut. James Darling, 
Dr. E. G. Tucker, J. W. Wolcott, Jr., James H. Roberts, 
J. T. Fuller, Geo. F. Williams, Jr., Levi C. Barney, John 
D. Cadogan. 

The procession marched in the following order : — 

Twelve mounted Police Officers, in command of Sergeant 
John M. Dunn. 

Col. Charles R. Codman and staff, in command of the escort. 

Band from Gallop's Island. 

Second Regiment of Infantry, under command of Lieut. Col. 
O. W. Peabody. 

The Lincoln Guards of South Boston, Capt. M. E. Bigelow. 

The Newton Zouaves, Capt. Alfred SchofF, a company of lads. 

The 14th unattached Company of militia, Capt. Lewis Gaul. 

Gilmore's Band with a Drum Corps. 

The Boston Light Infantry Regiment, H. O. Whittemore, 
Captain commanding. 

The 1st Battery Light Artillery, Capt. Cummings. 

The 2d Battery Light Artillery, Capt. French. 

Bond's Cornet Band. 

Brig. Gen. AVm. S. Tilton, Chief Marshal, and Aids. 

First Division. Col. Thomas Sherwin, Chief of Division. 
Aids, Capt. Geo. M. Barnard, Jr., and Lieut. John G. 
Kinsley. 



THE CELEBRATION. 65 

This Division was composed of the City Government, various 
present and past City, County, and State officials, officers of tlie 
N. E. Veteran Association, invited guests, and the Boston 
Scottish Club in Highland costume, and the American Hiber- 
nian Society with their officers and beautiful banners in a car- 
riage, the members following on foot in good numbers and 
wearing their handsome regalia. 

Second Division. Col. A. F. Devereux, Chief of Division. 
Aids, Lieut. Col. W. S. Davis, and Capt. A. P. Martin. 
This Division was composed entirely of returned soldiers, headed 
by cavalrymen, preceded by a drum corps of young lads with 
Master Coffin, acting Drum Major. 

Next was borne a banner on which was the motto, "The 
Nation's Defenders," who were represented by members of dif- 
ferent Army Corps, each bearing a representation of their corps 
badge, as follows : — 

1st Corps, " Buck's Eye." 

2d Corps, " Clover." 

3d Corps, "Diamond." 

5th Corps, " Maltese Cross." 

Gth Corps, " Roman Cross." 

9th Corps, " Anchor and Shield." 

10th Corps, " Four-Bastioned Fort." 

11th Corps, " Crescent." 

20th Corps, "Heart." 

Then came four large wagons, each drawn by four noble 
horses, furnished by Adams & Co.'s Express Company, and by 
•J 



66 THE CELEBRATION. 

Jordan, Marsh, & Co., containing disabled veterans. As the 
brave and crippled men passed, the thousands of people who 
lined the sidewalks greeted them with hearty cheers. 

The procession moved from City Hall in Chauncy Street, 
through Summer, Winter, Tremont, Park, and Beacon streets, 
to Arlington Street ; through Arlington to Boylston Street ; 
through Boylston to Park Square ; through Park Square and 
Pleasant Street to Tremont Street ; through Tremont, Dover, 
Washington, and Winter streets, to the Music Hall. 

The City Council and guests entered Music Hall, and the 
escort conducted the veterans to the foot of Beacon Street Mall. 



THE SOLDIERS' COLLATION. 

Twenty tables Avere laid in Beacon Street Mall for the vet- 
eran returned soldiers and sailors, of which they partook with a 
hearty relish. After the eatables were disposed. of, some of the 
veterans made brief remarks appropriate to the occasion, and 
among others Mr. Benjamin F. Norcro*s, a veteran sailor of thirty 
years' standing, who came home in the Canandaigua, made an 
interesting speech, wdiich was listened to with marked attention. 
The company separated after giving cheers for the Army and 
Navy. 

SERVICES IN THE MUSIC HALL. 

The Music Hall was filled to overflowing. It had been ap- 
propriately draped, for the occasion, the names of the States 
and of John Hancock and the other signers of the Declaration 
of Independence, from Massachusetts, being prominent upon 



THE CELEBRATION. 67 

tlie galleries. There were also mottoes making proper allusion 
to the preservation of the Union by the valor of our brave men. 

Soon after 12 o'clock, Mayor Lincoln entered with Admiral 
Farragut and Gen. Anderson, who Avere received with tremen- 
dous cheering. The singing of the " Star-Spangled Banner," 
which opened the exercises, was by a Choir selected from the 
High and Grammar schools, nnder the direction of Mr. Carl 
Zerralm, and received much applause. A prayer was offered 
by Kev. Henry W. Foote, when the " Chorus of Pilgrims," 
from " I Lombardi," was sung. 

The Declaration of Independence was gracefully read by 
Master Charles Harris Phelps. Kev. Mr. ]\Ianning, then de- 
livered his Oration. It was warmly applauded, particularly the 
allusions to the suppressed passage of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and to Farragut, Stringham, Grant, Sherman, An- 
derson, and President Lincoln, and the great act of his admin- 
istration. 

The following Original Hymn, by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, 
was then sung to the Music of the " Old Hundredth Psalm." 

Our Fathers built the house of God ; 

Rough-hewn, with haste its sLabs they hiid ; 
The savage man in ambusli trod ; 

And still they worshijjpcd undismayed. 

They wrought like stalwart men of war, 
WIio wrung the state from heathen hands ; 

Wlio bore their foith's high banner far. 
And in its name possessed the lands. 



68 THE CELEBRATION. 

TJie skill of strife to peaceful arts, 

Their perils over, glad gave way ; 
The bond of freedom joined men's hearts 

More near than meaner compact may. 

Wc, followers of their task and toil. 

Inherited their dangers too ; 
Drove bloody rapine from our soil, 

Th' oppressor dared, the murderer slew. 

Our heavy work, like theirs, at end ; 

Eeturning from the death-won field, 
Brother with brother, friend with friend, 

Again the house of God we build. 

Oh ! may our ransomed freedom dwell 

In truth's own citadel secure ; 
And blameless guardians foster well 

The mystic flame that must endure. 

The flame of holy human love. 

That makes our liberties divine ; 
Let each strong arm its champion prove. 

And each true heart its deathless shrine. 

Benediction was pronounced by the Chaplain. 

DINNER AT FANEUIL HALL. 

At the close of the exercises at Music Hall, a procession 
was formed of the City Council and its guests, which marched 
directly to Faneuil Hall. The decorations of the Hall were 
somewhat more carefully and elaborately arranged than is cus- 
tomary on such occasions, and are thus described by the 
decorators, Messrs. Lamprell & Marble : — 



THE CELEBRATION. 69 

" The entrance was throutrh an arch of flag's. From the 
centre of the ceiling was suspended a large star, twenty-five 
feet in diameter, composed of flags of all nations, in the 
centre of Avhich was a blue field with silver stars. The points 
of the star were tipped with gilt ornaments. Radiating from 
the star were American pennants and various-colored bunting 
to the capital of each pillar ; also red, white, and blue bunting 
extending; around the cornice of the Hall. A laro-e arch of 
green and gilt spanned the eagle, with a motto, "Peace — 
Reunion — Liberty." On the pillars were emblems of war, 
U. S. shield, liberty cap, &c. From the arch, and attached 
to the pillars, were a canopy of blue field, with stars, envel- 
oping the eagle. On the panels of the Gallery were the names 
of some of our most prominent army and naval officers. On 
one side of the clock was " Farragut — Welcome, in the 
Cradle of Liberty, to the noble leader of our brave and gallant 
Navy, who, in his own career, has embodied the loyalty, the 
valor, and the courage which has borne our hardy tars on to 
glorious victory." On the opposite side, "Grant — All 
honor to the great Captain of the age, who combines the 
perseverance of Wellington Avith the strategy of Napoleon." 
On the side galleries, " Meade," " Sherman," " Sheridan," 
"Porter," "FooTE," " Stringham," " Winslow," and 
"Anderson" — Faithful among the faithless! Deserted by 
his Commander-in-Chief, he withstood all temptations, choos- 
ing death rather than the surrender of his country's flag to 
sedition and treason." Small clones of flaii's and shields were 
Interspersed between the panels. AVhite, red, and blue bunt- 
Ins: extended in festoons arousd the base of the o;allcrics, and 



70 THE CELEBRATION. 

American flags and bunting were appropriately festooned in 
the rear of the rostrum. The lower windows were curtained 
with American flags and white, pink, and blue lace. The 
upper windows were decorated with flags of all nations. 
There were also large American flags on each side of the 
lower doors. Bronze medallions, life size, of the late 
President Lincoln, Secretary Seward, Lieutenant-General 
Grant, Major-General Meade, IMaj or- General Butler, and 
Vice-Admiral Farragut, adorned the wall behind the 
Mayor's chair. On the rostrum in front, in the midst of 
a sea of beautiful mosses and flowers and aquatic plants, 
appeared a fine miniature representation of the U. S. ship 
Hartford, the flag-ship of Admiral Farragut at the battle of 
New Orleans." 

His Honor Mayor Lincoln presided at the tables, and, 
upon hia invitation, the Divine blessing was invoked by the 
Chaplain of the Day, Rev. Henry W. Foote. 

The dinner was then spread, and the company occupied 
nearly an hour in the practical discussion of its merits. The 
cloth was then removed, when Mayor Lincoln rose and spoke 
as follows : — 

"Fellow-Citizens: Again, under happy auspices, we 
are assembled in Faneuil Hall, and, in company with distin- 
guished guests, celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration 
of Independence. For the past four years our civic feast has 
been omitted. We have repaired to other temples, as has 
been the custom of the people of Boston on this day since 
the close of the Revolutionary War, and with prayer and 



THE CELEBRATION. 71 

praise have listened to those words of hope and cheer which 
were befitting tlie solemn exigency through which our country- 
was passing ; but our hearts were not attuned to those jubilant 
strains, which graced in happier times the festivities of our 
commemorative exercises. 

" This venerated Hall, indeed, during this time, has not been 
closed. It has been exerting an influence from its traditional 
history, and from the live men whose eloquence has rung 
through its arches, as important as in any period since one 
stone was laid upon the other. Its doors have opened on 
their golden hinges to our armed men going to or coming 
from the gage of battle. They have been inspired by the 
patriotic memories which impregnate its walls. Their faith 
in the good old cause has been strengthened as they remem- 
bered tlic Fathers who rocked the cradle in the infancy of the 
Republic ; and tlieir indignation has been aroused as they 
heard the traitor's threat, that the l\ebel flag would one day 
float over the sacred edifice. The stern discipline of sorrow 
and gloom was laid upon the land, to test the manhood 
of the pco})le. The trial has been severe, and the sacrifice 
great ; but through the Providence of God, and the might 
of the gallant men on the land and on the sea, who have 
unflinchingly stood by their country in its hour of peril, the 
Republic is saved, and we rejoice to-day with shouts of tri- 
umph unexampled in our history. 

" What a contrast is the celebration of to-day to all which 
have preceded it ! Before the late Rebellion, it was our cus- 
tom to assemble to rehearse the noble story of our Fathers. 
Sometimes the thoughtful would rai.<e the question if we of 



72 THE CELEBRATION. 

# 
this generation were worthy of the rich inheritance they had 

bequeathed to us. We rejoiced, in holiday attire, over the 

deeds of our ancestors. Had a long" peace and unexampled 

worldly prosperity sapped the foundations of public virtue? 

Had we become degenerate and unequal to the peculiar mission 

committed to us as one of the family'of nations? The events 

of the last four years have answered these doubts. Our 

valor and mettle have been tried and tested ; and we have 

shown to the world, and the record has been made on the 

historic page, that this people are ' worthy sons of worthy 

sires ; ' and that the impulses of a lofty patriotism beat as 

strongly in their bosoms as it did in the bosoms of those heroic 

men who pledged their lives and sacred honor, or stood the 

shock of battle in the war of the Revolution. 

" The principles which they enunciated in the immortal 
document put fortli to the world July Fourth, 1776, have 
received a more emphatic indorsement than even they were 
able to give them ; and we stand to-day, in name and in spirit, 
in fact and in deed, a free and independent people. Chattel 
slavery, ' that thorn in the flesh, ' which was so foreign 
to the genius of our Republican form of government, and 
which has had such an irritating influence upon the constitu- 
tion of the body politic, no longer is a reproach to our fair 
name ; and on this glorious anniversary, another race, born 
within the limits of the Republic, salutes our flag, as it rises 
in the morning's fresh light, as their emblem of freedom and 
manhood. 

"We to-day commence a new epoch in the history of the 
nation. Assuming a position in the world which neither 



THE CELEBRATION. 73 

foreign nations nor domestic traitors can ever hereafter shake, 
our own military questions settled, we are to be called upon, 
as American citizens, to meet new duties and responsibilities 
£:rowin2: out of an altered state of affairs. Followino; as a 
guide the principles laid down by the Fathers, instructed and 
enlightened by the events, recent and remote, which have 
transpired since the Federal Government was organized, 
crushing the spirit of despotism wherever it exists in old in- 
stitutions, and infusing more of the spirit of liberty and humani- 
ty into all those which affect the present or the future happiness 
of the people, let patriotism, not party, be the touchstone to 
which every new measure of statesmanship shall be applied ; 
and the world will be given to understand that the citizens of 
the United States arc indeed, now and forever, one people. 

" Let a broad nationality which obliterates State lines be 
our absorbing passion. As our soldiers on the field, as our 
sailors on the deck, stood together in the late conflict with 
the Rebel foe, looking only to the one flag of the Union float- 
ing over them, so may we, bound together by the perils we 
have passed, become more firmly fixed in the resolve that 
the links which make these thirty-six commonwealths one 
nation shall never be severed. 

" With these few observations, fellow-citizens, and con- 
gratulating you upon the inspiring circumstances under Avhich 
we are celebrating the eighty-ninth anniversary of American 
Independence, with a cordial welcome to Faneuil Hall, to the 
brave men whose gallant exploits have given a new significance 
and glory to the hallowed observance of the day, cordially 
greeting at our festivities the heroic commander of Fort 
10 



74 THE CELEBRATION. 

Sumter, whose intrepid garrison first received and respond- 
ed to the dastardly shots aimed at the honored ensign of 
the Repubhc, with a welcome as large as a sailor's heart 
to the Vice-Admiral, whose noble deeds have added to the 
fame as they have given a new name and rank to the navy 
of the United States, I will call upon you all, as loyal men, 
to rise while I propose the health of one who should be 
uppermost in our hearts to-day : — 

"' His Excellency, Andrew Johnson, the President of the 
United States.'" 

The Band played " The Star-Spangled Banner," the company 
standing. 

The Mayor then introduced the Hon. John Lowell, Judge 
of the U. S. District Court, to respond to the sentiment just 
offered. Judge Lowell said : — 

" I esteem myself peculiarly fortunate, Mr. Mayor, in being 
called upon to respond, at this precise time, to the loyal and 
ever-welcome sentiment — ' The President of the United 
States.' 

" For the first time for four years we can hail the sentiment 
without misoivino- and without drawback. No thouo-ht here 
and now of Presidents de jure and Presidents de facto : no 
subtle, unexpressed, irrepressible, afterthought, of ' so-called ' 
Presidents, ruling over a ' so-called' nation within our own in- 
herited domain. The ' so-called ' are now busily engaged in 
throwing the blame upon each other, and ask of us only to be 
let alone, and need from us only Christian justice and Christian 
mercy. There is but one President now, thank God, from 
Canada to Mexico, and from the Atlantic to tlie Pacific seas. 



THE CELEBRATION. <D 

" And the events of these four years of doubt, of struggle, 
and of progress, have taught us something about that great office 
itself, of which the brave, steady, thoroughly patriotic Andrew 
Johnson is now the worthy representative ; have purged away, 
let us hope, some of the cankers of a full time and a long- 
peace. 

" In the course of that long period of prosperity, we had 
come to look upon the President of the United States too much 
as the mere chief of a successful party, as a gentleman who had 
a large number of party friends to reward, and of party ene- 
mies to punish, at the public expense ; to the public damage, too 
often, for the men that he turned out of office (of whatever 
party) were, on the average, better than the men he put in, by 
an experience of four years in office. I appeal to every office- 
holder here if this will not be true — of his successor. 

" We need to talk, jestingly, of loaves and fishes ; but what 
were the five thousand and the seven thousand who were fed by 
these miracles to the swarms that infested Washington on the 
4th of JMarch of every fourth year ? I guess all the white male 
citizens of Judea, with a considerable sprinkling of Assyrians 
thrown in (those Assyrians that ' came down' to march farther 
than they intended) , would hardly be a circumstance to the free 
and enlightened citizens of this Republic, who were ready to 
serve their country, in the interests of their party, in those happy 
days that are gone. 

" But the war has taught us that the Presidents are intended 
i'or something besides making and unmaking tide waiters. 
Step by step, hour by hour, day by day, the man we had, by 
the blessinix of an overrulin2r Providence, chosen to do these 



76 THE CELEBRATION. 

little tilings, developed and grew to the height of ruling over 
many things, until on that fatal day in April there was scarcely 
a luan in the civilized world that did not realize in Abraliani 
Lincoln the fit constitutional chief of a great, persistent, mag- 
nanimous, and free people. 

" He is gone ! he is entered into the joy of his Lord. But 
his successor has, resting upon him, responsibilities scarcely less 
heavy, duties less conspicuous, but almost equally important. 
Let us give him — more than our respect — our love, our sym- 
pathy, and our prayers, that he may be enabled to conduct this 
nation wisely, humanely, safely through the shoals and breakers 
that still surround us, into the final haven of freedom, equality, 
and peace." 

The Mayor next gave " The Commonwealth of Massacliu- 
sctts." He remarked that no Executive of any Loyal State 
had been more zealous and efficient in upholding the Govern- 
ment in its efforts to restore the Union than llis Excellency 
John A. Andrew, and he regretted that it was impossible for 
him to be present here. The Governor and the State were, 
however, well represented by Rev. S. K. Lothrop, D. D. who, 
as Chaplain of the Cadets, the Governor's body-guard, had 
been deputed by the Governor to appear in his place. 

Dr. Lothrop spoke as follows : — 

"Mr. Mayor and Fellow-Citizens: — 

" I have had a great many pleasures and honors, sir, in my 
life, — more than I deserved, — but never such an honor as 
this, — that I should be called upon to respond for the Old 



THE CELEBRATION. 7T 

Commonwealth of INIassachnsetts, on the 4th of July, In Faneuil 
Hall, — an honor to which I have been summoned and detailed 
by his Excellency, the Governor, because I happened to be 
Chaplain to his Guard of Honor, the Independent Corps of 
Cadets, and I suppose that there is nobody between that huuible 
office and his Excellency, who could be brought here to-day to 
speak for him. 

" It is an honor which, in my most ambitious aspirings, I 
could never have dreamed would be mine, and therefore, Mr. 
Mayor and Fellow-Citizens, I beg you not to be surprised, 
should you perceive that the singular modesty for which I am 
known to be distinguished seems to be a little overborne by the 
extraordinary distinction which devolves upon me this day. If 
ever it was to devolve upon me to speak for the Commonwealth, 
I rejoice that it has come on an occasion of so much interest 
and importance as this year's Commemoration of our great 
National Anniversary ; and if I had to speak for any Governor, I 
am very glad to speak for Governor Andrew. He is a man of 
so much decision and independence of character, that doubtless 
there are many who do not entirely like him, but I may confi- 
dently assume that it will be admitted by the great mass of men 
in this State, of all parties, that he has presided over our State 
affairs with singular wisdom and energy during a period of great 
public peril and anxiety, and that through his unquestionable 
ability, through his untiring industry, through his political 
sagacity, through his undeviating and undaunted loyalty, he has 
so conducted his administration of our affairs for the last, now 
neaily, five years, as to make it form an interesting, important, 
brilliant, and glorious Chapter in the History of this Ancient 



78 THE CELEBRATION. 

Commonwealth. I am not ' in the poHtical line,' Mr. Mayor, 
but on the broad basis of a patriotic citizenship, I am ready to 
say, ' all honor to Governor Andrew, for the ability and fidelity 
with which he has upheld the honor of the State during these 
years of Civil War.'" 

" But it is time, Mr. Mayor and gentlemen, that His Excel- 
lency should be permitted to speak for himself. With your 
leave, therefore, I will read a letter which he requested me to 
read on this occasion, which is as follows : — 

"Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Executive 
"Department, Boston, June oO, 18G5. 

*' IIis Honor F. W. Lincoln, Jr., Mayor, Boston, Mass. 

" My dear Sir : My absence from Boston during a part of 
next week will prevent my enjoying the opportunity offered by 
your invitation to share with the City Government of Boston 
the festive commemoration of the anniversary of American 
Independence, which it is one of the distinctions of Boston 
that she always celebrates with a fervent and generous devo- 
tion, worthy the eminent fame of her ' Cradle of Liberty.' 

" I think she is the only city in the Union of which it can 
be affirmed that this commemoration, in all the forms of the 
prophecy imputed to John Adams, is observed and kept by 
the municipality and by the people, in Peace and in War, 
without interruption, and with every emblem and demonstration 
of patriotic joy and gratitude. 

" In 1859, I spent the 4th of July in the City of Washing- 
ton, when, in conversation with a member of Mr. Buchanan's 
Cabinet, he remarked, with the twang and the peculiarity of 



THE CELEBRATION. 79 

emphasis Avliich used to mark the conversation of tlie apostles 
and leaders of incipient treason : ' You Yankees are a singular 
people.' To which I gladly seized the occasion of replying : 
' Indeed, we are, sir. In Boston, the metropolis of Yankee- 
dom, this very Anniversary of American Liberty has been 
ushered in by a chorus of bells and of cannon. It is kept by 
our })eople as the " Sabbath day of Freedom." By processions, 
civic and military ; by solenui praise, and by a patriotic oration 
in the presence of the authorities and fathers of the city ; by 
a cheerful reunion of the representatives of the people and of 
every branch of the public service around the hospitable board 
where the Mayor in person presides ; by festivities and games 
for children of every class ; by sun-down guns and evening 
fireworks, attracting the whole population of Eastern Massa- 
chusetts, — by all these and by a universal holiday, these " singu- 
lar Yankees " are remembering and celebrating this day. While 
here, at the seat of the Federal Government, I perceive only a 
few colored children of the Sunday schools marching in proces- 
sion, alone and almost without human sympathy. I hope to 
see the day when something of our singulariUj may strike as 
high as the City of Washington.' 

" He did not pursue the discussion. Since then I have 
thought, oh, how often ! of the poor little colored girls and 
boys, guarding as it were the few coals on that which should 
have been the Mgk altar, and which have at last flamed up, 
with ample blaze, wafting to heaven the fragrant incense of a 
sublime devotion. 

" Let these ' singular Yankees' continue to be faithful to the 
ancient traditions. Let Boston assume and keep, if need be, 



80 THE CELEBRATION. 

in tlie lead of every true thought, of every noble purpose, and 
let the Institutions and ideas which distinguish the people of 
New England be commended to every State and every section, 
until liberty shall be equally enjoyed by all the citizens of the 
Union in impartial participation. 

"I have the honor to be, faithfully and respectfully, your 
friend and servant, 

"JOHN A. ANDREW." 

" It pleased His Excellency, INIr. Mayor and fellow-citizens, 
to ask me, after reading this letter, to make a few remarks of 
my own. But, sir, what can a man do who comes after the 
king, and what can I say that will add force or pertinence to 
the thoughts which I have just read ? I am sure, fellow-citizens, 
our hearts must all sympathize with the spirit of this letter. The 
testimony which it bears to the extent and thoroughness, the 
constancy, the hearty and patriotic spirit with which the City of 
Boston at all times, in peace and in war, with every generation 
and without interruption, has celebrated the return of this Anni- 
versary of American Independence, — that testimony Is true, 
and for one I rejoice that Governor Andrew embraced the op- 
portunity and had the courage to pour that testimony Into the 
cars of the member of the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan to whom 
he referred. Had he poured It into tlie ears and the heart of 
the Chief of that Cabinet, he would not have done any harm. 
(Applause.) 

" It Is to the glory of this city, — a glory which finds its re- 
flection and its counterpart throughout Massachusetts and New 
England, — that, feeling the deep significance and Importance of 



THE CELEBRATION. 81 

the grand truths enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, 
and reiterated in spirit in the preamble to the Constitution of 
the United States, the people of Boston have always celebrated 
the return of this day with various grateful demonstrations ; and 
it is because they have thus celebrated it, that tliey can cele- 
brate and have a right to celebrate it to-day with an unusual 
display of patriotic pride and joy. Mr. INIayor, if there is a 
man in this assembly whose heart does not beat with a deeper 
throb of patriotic pride than ever before on the 4th of July, I 
pity him. (Applause and ' Good.') But there is no such man 
among you. I have done you injustice in supposing that it 
could be so, because we celebrate this day this year under the 
most grand and auspicious circumstances. 

" We celebrate not simply our National Independence, but 
our National deliverance and regeneration. We celebrate the ter- 
mination of a four years' civil war unparalleled in the magnitude 
of its operations, and in the transcendent importance of its 
issues. (Applause.) AVe celebrate the extinction of that 
which was the darkest blot upon our escutcheon ; we celebrate 
the overthrow of a rebellion the most gigantic that ever threat- 
ened the life of a nation and failed of success, — a rebellion so 
gigantic, so wide spread, so deep laid In its plans, so mighty in 
its power and so determined in its purpose, that only a free 
government and a free people could have triumphed over it. 
(Long and continued applause.) 1 am reminded by the ex- 
tinction of that rebellion, Mr. Mayor, and by all the desolation 
it has spread in the States where it existed, of some strong and 
striking words uttered more than thirty years ago by Edward 
Everett, whose spirit Is witii us tlils day, whose image is in ail 
11 



82 THE CELEBRATION. 

our hearts. Oh, would that he was present with his magic voice 
to utter the words of eloquence and power which this occasion 
would call from his lips ! In 1833 he delivered the 4th of July- 
oration at Worcester. It was just after General Jackson, sup- 
ported by the irresistible logic, the broad statesmanship, and the 
mighty power of Daniel Webster, had put down nullification in 
South Carolina (Applause), ' scotched the serpent but not killed 
it.' Mr. Everett's oration, therefore, was largely occupied with 
the value and importance of Union ; and therefore he said : 
' I would not have it supposed that I think the Union is of 
special value and importance to the people of this section of the 
country. The intimation which has been thrown out, the belief 
which has been in some quarters avowed that the Northern 
States have a peculiar interest in the preservation of the Union, 
— that they derive advantages from it at the uncompensated 
expense of the South, — is the greatest delusion that was ever 
propagated by men deceived themselves, or disposed to deceive 
otliers. All parts of the Union would suffer deplorably from 
the dissolution of it, but the bitter chalice would not be pre- 
sented first to our lips. The people of the North would suffer 
from the dissolution of the Union, but they would be the last to 
suffer and they would suffer least, while that portion of the 
country that is continually shaking over us the menace of disso- 
lution woi\ld be swept with the besom of destruction the moment 
an offended Providence permitted that ill-starred purpose to 
reach to maturity.' (Applause.) Sir, these words, which I 
quote from memory, but I believe quite correctly, uttered more 
than thirty years ago by the scholar, 'he statesman, the orator 
who did so much by his moderation and forbearance to prevent 



THE CELEBRATION. 83 

the late rupture, and wlio, when that rupture came, stood firm 
in a manly loyalty, and did good and noble service for the 
Union, — these words now come up before us as a prophecy 
awfully fulfilled. The desolate plantations, the ruined towns 
and villages, the multitude of battle fields, the whole scene 
throughout that whole region of country from the Potomac to 
the Mississippi, bears testimony that tlie bitter chalice has not 
been held to our lips, but to tlie lips of those who undertook to 
overthroAv our Government. 

" Mr. Mayor, our country began with God. Our ftithcrs 
planted the first germs of our civilization in a spirit of Christian 
faith, amid sacrifices and tears, and from tliat hour, all 
througli our history, tlie providence of God has been marvel- 
lously displayed in our growth, preservation, and national de- 
velopment, and more marvellously than all in the way in which 
that providence has led us on, and led us through this great 
struggle with a glorious triumph of liberty, a better, larger, and 
more established freedom. And this day and every day, our 
thought should first mount up in gratitude and adoration to the 
God of our fathers for all tliat goodness to them and to us and 
to our country under which we meet together here to-day. 
(Applause.) And next to God and vmder his Providence, our 
thoughts should go forth in honor, in admiration, in reverence 
and in gratitude to the noble defenders of our country and its 
liberties (loud applause), to all those of every rank, high and 
low, who took their lives in their hands and went forth to fight 
for the dear old flag, ' The Stars and the Stripes ;' and who 
have so fought for it, that now with a fresh glory around it, 
with the power of a free people still slumbering in its folds, it 



84 THE CELEBRATION. 

floats undisturbed over the land, waves its protection and its 
power alike over an unbroken Union, an undivided country. 
(Loud applause.) And I rejoice, sir, I sympathize with you 
and with all my fellow-citizens, that it is permitted us this day 
to behold the faces of two of these noble and irallant defenders. 
(Tremendous applause.) 

" I thank God that I have an opportunity to look into the ftice 
and to cry honor to the man who in those gloomy days in the 
Spring of 1861 stood there at Fort Sumter alone, as it were, 
unaided, unreached, undirected even by his Government, stood 
there firm and resolute in the difficult duty of forbearance and 
inaction so long as they were his duty, — brave and resolute in 
resistance when the hour for resistance came, and continued 
that resistance so long as seventy half-starved men could fight 
against ten thousand. (Tremendous applause and three cheers 
for Genei'al Anderson.) 

"And I thank God, sir, that it is permitted me and my 
fellow-citizens to look upon the foce, to welcome to our hearts 
and our homes, to our city and to this old Cradle of Liberty, 
and to cry honor to the man who has written a new and 
brilliant chapter in the history of naval w\arf;ire (tremendous 
applause ) , — a chapter fit to succeed those that tell of the ex- 
ploits of Perry and McDonough, of Hull and Morris, of Preble 
and Decatur, and many others that I might mention, and who 
has so written that new and brilliant chapter in naval history, 
that when it conies to be thoroughly read and understood, the 
halo of glory that gilds the names, of Nelson and Trafalgar will 
grow pale before the grander glory that shall gather, in every 
American heart, around the names of Farragut and Mobile. 
/Thundering cheers, the company all rising.) 



THE CELEBRATION. 85 

" ]\Ir. ]Mayor, I have spoken much too long. I will stop. T 
will crush down a great many thoughts that swell in my heart 
for utterance, — thoughts connected with our martyred President 
and his noble character, — thoughts connected with the memory 
of our noble dead of this State and of every State, tlie pride 
and flower of the nation, — thoughts connected with the diffi- 
culties and the glories that encompass this nation in its present 
condition and prospects, with the great moral and physical 
power it is to become in the world if true to itself, its opportu- 
nities, and its principles. I feel much and deeply upon all these 
topics, Mr. Mayor, and I sliould like to talk about them, but I 
will crush them all down and say, in conclusion, that while I 
honor the Union, while I cleave to it and will cling to it to tlie 
death, while I am ready to maintain it at all hazards and at 
every cost, I honor Old Massachusetts as a glorious part of this 
Union. (Applause.) 

" I honor it for what it has done for itself. I honor it for 
what it has done for the Union, — for all the thoughts, influences, 
and actions which it has sent out into the Union, and I am 
ready to conclude and to agree with the' Governor in saying, let 
these singular Yankees continue faithful to the traditions. Let 
Boston assume, and if need be take the lead in every true 
thought and In every right piu'pose ; and let the institutions and 
the ideas which distinguish the people 6f New England be 
connnended to every State and every section until liberty is 
uiii\crsally enjoyed by every citizen of the Union in impartial 
jiarlicipation. The ideas and institutions of Xew England are 
only two, — a common school in every hamlet, and a church in 
every village. (Applause.) Let these institutions go forth, 



86 THE CELEBRATION . 

let there be intellectual and moral culture everywhere for all , 
and then tlie wider our freedom, the greater our glory, the more 
secure our safety." (Loud applause.) 

At the close of Dr. Lothrop's remarks, His Honor the Mayor 
stated that an emblem of peace lay concealed among the 
flowers upon the table, and releasing a dove from its confine- 
ment, the bird made a circling flight, and pcrclied upon the 
gilded eagle surmounting the picture of the Webster and Hayne 
debate. The episode excited hearty applause. 

The next sentiment given was, — " The Memory of Abraham 
Lincoln," which was received by the company standing and in 
silence, tlie band playing a dirge. 

The ]\Iayor then introduced to the company, Brevet ISIajor 
General Ivobert Anderson, with a few complimentary remarks. 
He alluded to the fact that, notwithstanding the pressure 
brought to bear upon him, in consequence of liis Southern birth, 
to desert his flag, he remained steadfast to the Union, and by 
his heroic defence of Sumter, though apparently defeated, 
really united and fixed the loyal sentiment of the country. 

Gen. Anderson was received with a round of cheers, and 
spoke as follows : — 

" My Friends : You must not expect a speech from me. 
Retired from the army, after a consultation with a board of 
physicians, on a declaration of my doctors that my brain had 
been over-taxed, and that I would never be fit again for duty, 
I have, since that time, been prohibited from attempting to 
make a speech. 



THE CELEBRATION. 87 

"lam indebted to Massachusetts for many tilings; and, 
before I sit down, I Avill simply remark that the first letter I 
received in Fort Moultrie, before I went to Fort Sumter, 
when it was found that things were looking very threatening, — 
(I felt the storm there long before you saw the flash here) , — 
I received a letter from a gentleman (I am sorry I don't re- 
member his name), a militia officer of this city, offering me 
troops from Massachusetts if the Government would then allow 
them to be sent to me.* (Applause.) 

" Gentlemen, after what I have said, you will excuse me 
from attempting to make any further remarks. I thank you 
from the bottom of my heart for the kind reception you have 
given me in this noble, this great Hall, on this grand occasion. 
We have a country again, and, thank God ! we have a country 
of which we can all be proud. (Applause.) 

" Our country has passed through a storm such as no other 
country ever passed through or was threatened with before. 
Let us give to God thanks for the victory which our troops hy 
His blessing have been enabled to win for us." (Applause.) 

The ]\Iayor then presented to the company Vice-Admiral 
David G. Farragut, remarking that the City was extremely 
fortunate in having for its guest such eminent representatives 
of the Army and Xavy. The great events in the brilliant 
career of Admiral Farragut were already as familiar and dear 
to American hearts as " household words." 

* At the reception given by Gen. Anderson and Admiral Farragut, to the 
citizens of Boston, in Faneuil Hall, on the next day (July 5) Brig. Gen. Ed- 
ward W. Hinks was introduced to Gen. Anderson as the officer who sent the 
letter alluded to. 



OO THE CELEBRATION. 

The Admiral was received roost entliusiasticallj, and after 
the restoration of silence, spoke as follows : — 

" Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen : In the first place I don't 
really know what I could say. These gentlemen have already 
gone over the ground. The first speaker gave us a synopsis of 
the war ; the next eulogized it, and I really feel that I have 
nothing left but to talk about myself which woidd be a most un- 
profitable thing both to you and me. (" Go on.") It has 
simply been my good fortune to be associated with many ^Massa- 
chusetts troops during tlie war, and it gives me great pleasure to 
testify to their good conduct ; and it has always given me great 
pleasure and satisfaction in every instance where we have 
worked together, that we have always worked in harmony and 
in good faith with one another. I am extremely obliged to you 
for this reception, and it is a most happy circumstance that I, 
— after having left this port nearly fifty years ago, as the 
Mayor said (I was then a little midshipman) , — should return here 
as Vice-Admiral on this great and grand occasion, the 4th of 
July, after a peace which I predicted a year ago last June 
would soon come, — and should be greeted by you for that which 
you conceive to have been my great exertions during the war to 
bring about that peace." (Applause.) 

The Mayor then proposed, — " The Orator of the day. lie 
has said the right thing, in the right way, and in the right place.'' 

Rev. Mr. Manning expressed his thanks for the honor con- 
fered upon him, and for the complimentary sentiment given by 
the Mayor, but excused himself from making any remarks. 



THE CELEBRATION. S9 

In the absence of Col. Wni. S. King, who was expected to 
respond to " The Citizen Soldiery of Massachusetts," Mayor 
Lincoln called upon Col. P. 11. Guiney, late of the Ninth Mass. 
Volunteers. 

Col. Guiney said that " lie regretted Col. King's absence, as 
he considered him a true and eloquent representative of the 
Citizen Soldiers, but there was some compensation in the fact 
that we had with us the great Admiral, who might be called 
the King of the seas. These are the only sort of Kings that 
will take root on this continent. 

" For two reasons it is unnecessary to say much about the 
citizen soldiers of Massachusetts. They arc content that the 
honors and enthusiasm of this occasion should be absorbed by 
the two illustrious heroes whose presence gives such charm 
and force to our festivities, and who are so deeply loved by 
every soldier of our State. Then it is not necessary to say 
nmch about Massachusetts soldiers. Words used in their 
praise, unless very carefully selected, would be apt to detract 
from, rather than to enhance the idea of their real merit. In- 
deed, every battle-field of our country, as well as the slaughter 
})rison-houses of the South, — wherever endurance, heroism, and 
tlovotion to the Republic were required, — gave testimony that 
the deeds of our citizen soldiery, baffled and conquered two 
things, rhetoric and the enemy. The latter has not recovered 
yet. 

"To be brief, then : in war, the citizen soldiers of Massachu- 
setts are the unrelenting foes of all who assail our flag or our 
liberties ; in peace, in politics, they are inclined to think that 
liberty has been long enough regulated and proscribed by law. 



90 THE CELEBRATION. 

and that it is now time to recognize it as a first principle, that 
law should be regulated by that liberty which was anterior to 
it, and which it never could rightfully crush or impair." 

The Mayor then gave, — "The loyal women of America," 
which was responded to by Mr. Charles W. Slack, who said : — 

"Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen: It is most fitting that 
these festive exercises should not close without an apprecia- 
tive word for the women of America. 

" ' The loyal women of America ! ' — how sweetly floats in 
that phrase, with the glad rejoicings of this national birthday, 
the crowdinn; remembrances of this more than hallowed an- 
niversary ! Amid the salvos of artillery, the pealing of 
bells, the gfiyly waving colors, the honors to brave men, 
mino'lino; in the festivities of this Ancient Hall, and lendins; 
transcendent merit to the public rejoicings of this day the 
continent over, come precious thoughts of the labors and 
prayers of the loyal, queenly w^omcn of America, through all 
the struggles and anxieties of the great contest now happily 
passed. They deserve our heartiest, truest thanks. From 
the fiill well of individual and national gratitude must they 
ever be permitted to draw unstinted draughts. 

"From every rank, class, and condition, — the poor girl 
picking berries by the roadside, that, converted into money, 
might help ; the aged matron, late into the night, finishing 
off the comforting sock for the distant volunteer ; the wealthy 
lady of the city giving her thirtieth, or more, monthly con- 
tril)ution, — -sxy! from the humble black slavewoman of the 
South, whose heart welcomed and whose cake nourished our 



THE CELEBRATION. 91 

exhausted boys flying from the charnel-houses of Rebel de- 
tention, to those magnificent parliaments of accomplished 
womanhood all over the land that inaugurated soldiers' fliirs, 
and sailors' homes, — how cheerfully, how nobly came the 
requisite help, — the patient, confident, untiring labor, — that 
now throws such a halo around the nation's triumphs by land 
and sea ! 

" AVe cannot forget the Avomen of America if we would I 
When the brilliant record of this war shall be fully made up, 
with the deeds of heroic men, the skill of counsellors, and 
the steadfast devotion of the citizen, will be mentioned In 
glowing page and sympathetic verse those quieter and gen- 
tler, it may be, but no less valuable and welcome, labors of 
the loyal women of our land. Indeed, that the oldtime 
nationality of our flag, the maintenance of our institutions, 
and the perpetuity of the Republic, are as much owing to the 
unwearied efforts and influence of the women, in camp, hos- ■ 
pital, and at home, as to heroism on the field or shipboard, 
is a belief that many entertain, and which has often been ex- 
pressed. Accepting this thought, may we now, in the twi- 
light hour of this festal day, with the music of bells and 
cannon In parting salute honoring this doubly endeared anni- 
versary, pass from this Hall with sincere ascription to God in 
heart and upon lip, as we remember with gratitude and joy 
the services of ' The loyal women of America ! ' " 

His Honor then proposed as the final sentiment, " Tlie 
Declaration of Independence," to which Mr. Charles Harris 
Phelps eloquently responded as follows : — 



92 THE CELEBRATION. 

"Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen: It would be improper 
and out of place in me, indebted as I am to my position for the 
privilege of being called upon, to presume to eulogize or to 
praise the Declaration of Independence. No words of mine 
can add to its fame or increase its renown. But as I stood in 
the Music Hall, and read the inscription, ' Our brave men have 
preserved our Union,' I could not but feel how weakly and 
with how little meaning its glowing words were being read, 
compared to the significance which Anderson gave it as he read 
it to Rebeldom by the thunders of Sumter's cannon, — compared 
to the meaning which Farragut gave it by his double -shotted 
broadsides in the harbor of Mobile (applause) , — to the mean- 
ing given it by a million of bayonets under Grant and Sherman 
and Sheridan, as they read it on every battle-field of the South 
with the emphasis of resounding arms and salvos of artillery. 
(Loud applause.) 

"These heroes, illustrious through all time, whose fame 
shall be sounded in every tongue, have, during the past four 
years, declared that ' all men are created equal,' in such a 
manner that all traitors have trembled and all nations rejoiced. 
But it is not for me to trespass further upon your patience, 
neither is the occasion nor the theme from my humble lips, and 
I only ask your permission to oifer a toast to 

" ' Our gallant Army and Navy — The best readers of the 
Declaration of Independence, they have sent it in thunder-tones 
to all the world. Let the oppressed of every nation hear and 
take courage.' " 

The benediction was then pronounced by Rev. Mr. Manning. 



THE CELEBRATION. 93 

THE REGATTA 

was appointed to take place on Charles Iilver In the 
morning at 8 o'clock, that being the hour of high tide. An 
immense assemblage was present, and from the numerous 
entries, it was expected that the races would be unusually in- 
teresting and exciting. Unfortunately, however, the wind 
rose before the conclusion of the first race so as to make it 
dangerous for the light shell-boats to attempt to go over the 
course, and it was found necessary to put off the race to a 
later hour in the day, the people being notified, as far as 
practicable, of the postponement. 

The first race was for single scull oarsmen, there being 
seven entries. The principal contest, however, was between 
James Ilammill, of Pittsburg, Pa., champion oarsman of 
America, and John II. Radford of New York, who has won 
several races ; and although the latter obtained a consider- 
able lead at the start, he was soon passed by Hammill, who 
won easily. The others, finding it useless to contend, drew 
out before completing the first mile. 

The next race was for four-oared boats, the prizes offered 
being larger than usual ; and though there were four boats 
cntei-ed, but two appeared to contend. These were the fa- 
mous "Geo. L. Brown Crew," of New York, so often 
successful in these waters, and the " Geo. B. McClellan 
Crew," of Boston and St. John. The distance being six 
miles, an opportunity was afforded the spectators to see a 
turn at the lower stake, but as the "Brown" crew, in their 
new boat, the " Samuel Collyer," were well ahead and ap- 



94 THE CELEBRATION. 

peaied to be winning easily, the excitement was not wrought 
to a very high pitch. 

The third race was for double sculls, and was won easily 
by John Hammill and William Jackson, of Pittsburg, a boat 
rowed by jMcKee and Daily, of Boston being second. A 
boat from Harvard College, the " Winona, " was well up 
with the winner at the stake, but the wind having freshened, 
they shipped a good deal of water and were compelled to 
abandon the stru2:2;le. 

The evening was now pretty well advanced, and there re- 
mained on the programme a race for six-oared boats, for which 
were entered the "P. L. Tucker," of New York (rowed by 
the " Brown Crew"), and two Harvard College boats. The 
weather had, however, become so unpropitious, that the Har- 
vard boys did not feel safe to row. So there could be no race. 
Efforts were made to induce the boats to row the next day, but 
the New York party were anxious to return home, and the 
matter was dropped. 

The' following is a summary of the races : — 

First Race, for single sculls and whei-rics : distance two miles. 

James Hammill, of Pittsburg. Time, 1(5 min. 28^ sec. 
First Prize, $ 100. 

John H. Radford, of New York. Time, 16 min. 38 sec. 
Second Prize, $ 50. 

T. M. Doyle, of Boston. Time not taken. 

Jere Driscoll, of Boston. Time not taken. 



THE CELEBRATION. 95 

Second Race : for foiir-oared boats : distance six miles. 

" Samuel 'Collycr," rowed by James H. Biglin, John A. 
Biglin, Bernard Biglin, and D. Lcary, of New York. Time 
43 min. 32 sec. First Prize $400. 

" George B. INIcClellan," rowed by John Morris, of St. 
Johns, and George Faulkner, Jolm Lambert, and Thomas 
Scott, of Boston. Time, 43 min. 47 sec. According to the 
llules no Second Prize was awarded. 

lliird Race : for doulJe scidl loats : distance two viiles. 

" Sam Collins," rowed by John Hammill, and \\'illiam 
Jackson, of Pittsburg. Time, 17 min. 54 sec. First Prize 
$100. 

" Voyageur," rowed by A. McKee, and J. Daily of Boston. 

Time, 18 min. 4 sec. Second Prize $ 50. 

" AVinona," rowed by C. E. Hubbard and S. P. Iloldredie, 
of Cambridge. 

"J. Plancon," rowed by J. Driscoll and J. Donahue, of 
Boston. 

Fourth Race : for six-oared boats : distance three miles. 
"P. L. Tucker," entered by the Biglin Brothers, Leary, 
Eckerson, and Burns, of New York. 

*' Harvard," entered by the University Crew of Cambrido-e. 
" (!8," entered by the Freshman Class of Harvard College. 
This race could not take place on account of the rough water. 

THE BALLOON ASCENSIONS. 
Owing to the strong westerly wind which prevailed, Prof. 
King considered it inexpedient as well as unsafe to inflate either 



96 THE CELEBRATION. 

of his balloons and attempt ascensions, either alone or -\vitli 
companions. Consequently no ascension was made from the 
Common, greatly to the disappointment of the thousands pres- 
ent. On the Saturday following the two balloons were sent up 
successfully, and made very pleasant voyages ; one to Melrose, 
and the other to Scituate. 

THE FIREWORKS. 

The display of fireworks in the evening, was furnished by C. 
E. Masten, of Roxbury. Some of the principal pieces were 
very good. The piece constituting the grand finale M'as 
partially destroyed, the framework having been blown over by 
a sudden squall of wind in the early part of the evening. 
The line pieces, however, with that portion where a salvo of 
artillery is heard, and two gunboats, one upon either hand, 
bearing the names of " Farragut" and "Porter," move from 
left to right, the batteries firing a national salute, was pre- 
served and made a fine closing display. The fireworks at East 
and South Boston passed off successfully. 



OOllRESrONDENCE. 



COIIRESPOXDENCE. 



The following' avovc among the responses received to tlie In- 
vitations to jJ'ii'tieipatc in the Celebration : — 

Treaslky Department, June 15, ISCo. 

Demi Sik : Your favor of the 8th inst. is received. I 
spent some of my early and happiest days in Boston ; I feel 
that I have a right, therefore, almost to claim to be one of her 
citizens ; and am proud that she has not only maintained her 
Revolutionary reputation, but added largely to it by her de- 
votion to the country in the great conflict now brought to a 
glorious termination by the utter overthrow of the Rebellion, 
which, for the past four years, has been threatening the 
existence of the Union. 

I am gratified to learn that it is the intention of her citi- 
zens to celebrate the approaching Fourth of July with unusual 
ceremony. Nothing but imperative ofhcial engagements will 
prevent me from accepting your kind invitation to be present 
with you on this interesting occasion. 



100 CORRESPONDENCE. 

Please accept my thanks for the lionor you have done me, 
and believe me to be, 

Very truly yours, 

HUGH Mcculloch. 

Hon. F. W. Lincoln, Jr. Mayor of Boston, Mass. 



Washington, July ], 18G5. 

Dear Sir : I am honored by your invitation to partake 
of the hospitality of the City of Boston, and unite with 
you in celebrating the approaching Anniversary of the De- 
claration of Independence. 

It is gratifying to witness the arrangements which are being 
made throughout the country the present year for the general 
observance of this anniversary, which, during our civil troubles 
has been, to some extent, neglected. May we not hope that 
the successful termination of the war for the Union will de- 
stroy that sectional animosity which prevailed for a period, 
and restore harmony and good will among our countrymen? 
The disturbing element in our national affairs having been 
removed, there is now no cause or pretext for alienation. 
Hereafter the States will act on terms of more perfect equality, 
and as long as each shall discharge its appropriate duties 
and respect the right of others, each and all of them sustain- 
in"" in good faith the Federal Government in the exercise of 
its authority, no serious dissension can exist, and our national 
unity will be preserved and strengthened. 

Under the benignant auspices of peace and union, the 
approaching National Anniversary should be universally com- 
memorated. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 101 

Boston, with her Revohitlonary liistoiy, her patriotic tradi- 
tions, and licr intelligent loyalty, will, I doubt not, obser^e 
the day in a manner worthy of her ancient renown. My 
engagements are such, however, that I shall be compelled to 
deny myself the pleasure of partaking of the hospitality to 
which you have invited me, and of uniting with you in your 
celebration. I have the honor to be. 

Very respectfully, 

GIDEON WELLES. 
Hon. F. ay. Lincolx, Jr. ALnjor of Boston. 



Boston, July 1, 18fi5. 

My dear Sir : It will not be in my power to unite with 
my fellow-citizens of Boston in celebrating the Anniversary of 
our National Independence ; but I rejoice that we can cele- 
brate so happily, with Victory as the mistress of ceremonies. 

Do not, I pray you, Mr. JNIayor, let the great day pass 
without reminding our fellow-citizens that victory on tlie field 
of battle is not enough. There must be that further victory 
which will be found in the recognition everywhere in the 
country of the ideas of the Declaration of Independence. All 
must confess that, according to these ideas, there can be no 
republican government, which is not founded on " the consent 
of the governed " and tlic equality of all persons before 
the law. And all must dedicate themselves to the work of 
establishing these ideas. 

Then will our Fathers be vindicated and our country be 
glorified, God save the Kepublic ! 



102 CORRESPONDENCE. 

Accept my thanks for tlic invitation with which you have 
honored me. And believe me, dear sir, 

Faithfully yours, 

CHARLES SUMNER. 

Tlie Mayor of Boston. 



To His Honor, Frederic W. Lincoln, Jr. Mayoi- of 
the City of Boston : — 

Dear Sir: I beg leave to express, through you, to the 
Committee on Invitations of the City Council of Boston, my 
very grateful acknowledgments for the honor of their invita- 
tion to unite with them in the celebration of the approaching 
Anniversary of American Independence. The public obser- 
vance of the day, by the municipal authorities, and my more 
immediate fellow-citizens, of this city, seems to dictate the 
greater propriety of my remaining here ; but, whether here or 
there, my sentiments and sympathies will be with the joyous 
commemoration of the occasion. Every loyal heart must 
alike swell with gratitude, in recognition of the glorious tri- 
umphs of the past, and in the better hopes, assurances, and 
safeguards, which peace now brings to a sustained Government, 
a restored Union, and a gallant, patriotic, and free people. ' 

I have the honor to be, sir, with the most respectful reoard 
Your obliged and obedient servant, 

LEVI LINCOLN. 

Worcester, June 30, 1SG5. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 103 

New York, June 14, 1865. 
IIox. F. W. Lincoln, Jr. Mayor of Boston : — 

Dear Sik : I have just received your letter of yesterday, 
inviting me to be present at the proposed observance, by your 
City, of the approaching Anniversary of the Declaration of 
Independence. 

The occasion, the place, and tlie time, all concur to make me 
dee[)ly regret that engagements here render the acceptance of 
your kind invitation impossible. I can only express my cordial 
sympathy with your determination to give the ceremonies " a 
more imposing character than usual." It is right that the 
country, which has just put down, by courage and self-sacrifice, 
the most jjio^antic treason the world has ever witnessed, should 
make a demonstration of its thankfulness, which shall corre- 
spond with the magnitude of the perils it has escaped ; and it is 
eminently appropriate that among the foremost to give utter- 
ance to the sentiments the surrounding circumstances are cal- 
culated to inspire should be your city, which was among the 
most efficient in establishing our Independence, and which has 
labored with such patriotic zeal and unswerving resolution to 
maintain the Union of the States. 

Very truly yours, 

JOHN A. DIX. 



Head-Quarters Army of the 
Potomac, June 22, 18G5. 



To THE Hon. F. W. Lincoln, Jr. Maijor of Boston, Mass. 

Demi Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
your polite letter of the 18th inst., inviting me to Boston on tiie 



104 CORRESPONDENCE. 

approaching Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence ; 
and to express my great regret, that, owing to a prior engage- 
ment to visit Gettysburg, it will not be in my power to accept 
your invitation. It would afford me much pleasure to visit 
Boston, a city so distinguished during this great war for its 
patriotism, illustrated by the valor of so many of its citizens 
on fields where I have had the honor to command, and I trust 
I shall have this gratification before the summer has passed. 

In the mean time, I beg you will accept my thanks for the 
compliment you have honored me with, and believe me to be, 
with sincere respect, 

Your most obedient servant, 

GEO. G. MEADE, 

Muj. Gen. U. S. A. 



Wak Department, Adjutant-General's Office, 
Washington, Ju7ie 2G, 1865. 

His Honor F. W. Lincoln, Jr. Mdyor of Boston, and others 
of Committee on Invitations. 

Gentlemen : I have had the honor to receive your invitation 
to unite with the City Council of Boston in celebrating the 
approaching Anniversary of the Declaration of American In- 
dependence. 

I regret that reasons of a public character will prevent my 
being absent at this time from Washington, but assure you 
that nothing could more gratify me than to be present in my 
native city on this most interesting occasion, when it would 
seem an unusual si"-nificance will attach to our National Anni- 
vcrsary, when we may on that day proclaim to the woi'ld that 



CORRESrONDENCE. 105 

our form of Government is no longer an " Experiment," but 

a thing thoroughly tried and established. 

With great respect and esteem, I have the honor to be, 

Gentlemen, 

Your obedient servant, 

E. D. TOWNSEND, 

ulsiit. Ailj. Gen. U. S. A. 



WAsniNGTON, June 2d, 18G5. 

To THE Mayor and City Council or Boston : — 

Gentlemen : I duly fii)prociate the honor of your invita- 
tion to unite with you in celebrating the approaching Anniver- 
sary of the Declaration of American Independence, and regret 
that previous engagements will probably deprive me of that 
great pleasure. 

It is the first occasion of the kind on which the country 
stands before the world, having made good the first pledge of 
our Constitution. We are indeed a Nation of Freemen. 

To that end we have not spared treasure, nor lives far be- 
yond price. 

One great question remains, but that will be worked out 
in the appointed time by the wisdom of our people, so that 
justice shall be done to all. 

In these results your noble city has borne her full part. It 
was a regiment of your citizens that made its way to the 
Capital in tliat anxious hour when only a handful of men, of 
which I was one, had gathered about the Government of 
the Union. The massive array of thai legion, as it moved 
along the avcjiuc gave an assurance that cheered every heart. 



106 CORRESPONDENCE. 

On another occasion I was present when the 54th rushed 
upon the parapets of Wagner. Many brave men laid down 
life there, but none more lamented than the gallant Colonel 
Shaw. 

For every day of the last four years I have given my 
most earnest efforts to the great cause. One of my sons can 
say as much, and among other results participated at Vicksburg 
and Fort Fisher. Another only ceased when life was spent, 
in an attempt to free our captive soldiers from the dungeons of 
Richmond. So that all of my name that could bear arms, 
were at their posts. 

With my best wishes for the prosperity of the City of Bos- 
ton, I have the honor to be, 

Your obedient servant, 

J. A. DAHLGREN, 
Rear-Admiral U. S. ISavy. 



New York, June 29, 18G5. 
Gentlemen: Your circular of invitation, enclosing a 
ticket to the City of Boston 80th Anniversary Celebration of 
the American Independence, was duly received. 

To participate in such a celebration in the old Cradle of 
Liberty, at such a time, would afford me an extraordinary 
pleasure ; of which I shall be deprived by the inexorable 
commands of duty. But I join with you, and all ti'ue friends 
of freedom and justice, in heartfelt thanks to the all-bounteous 
Giver of all good, for having brouglit this nation out of its 
late peril, and in imploring Him *' who maketli to be of one 



CORRESPONDENCE. 107 

mind the people of a city," to keep tliis great Rcpuljlic one 
and indivisible now and forever. 
Yours truly, 

W. S. ROSECRANS, Major-Genmil. 
To F. W. Lincoln, Jk. jNIayor, and others of Commitlte, 
Boston, Mass. 



Engineer's Office, Defences of Boston IIabbor, 

July 1, 18G5. 

Hon. F. "W. Lincoln, Jr. Mayor of Boston : — 

Sir : I have the honor to aeknowledge the receipt last 
evening of the invitation of the authorities of this city to be 
present at their celebration of the coining 4th of July. And 
though a previous acceptance of another invitation to be 
present at an adjoining State celebration, prevents my having 
the pleasure of accepting yours, I cannot refrain from the 
expression of my congratulations to this principal city of that 
State, which, with the governor, has done so much to make 
this day of all others so wortliy of a grand celebration. For 
this is the first 4th of July in all our history that has really 
f )und us a free people ; for, though the chains of Great Brit- 
ain have long ago been thrown off, as they were nominally, 
upon the first of these great days, it is but now that the shackle 
of the slave has fallen, and the political tyranny over the 
North has ceased, leaving us for the first time as a people 
" born free and equal." God grant that such justice shall 
be meted out to the wrong-doers that we shall never be in 
their thraldom aaaiu. 

Very respectfully your obedient servant, 

H. W. BENHAiNI, Brevet Major-Gcneral. 



108 CORRESPONDENCE. 

Philadelphia, Pa., June 27, 18G5. 
Dear Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt 
of your invitation to become the guest of the City of Boston 
on the approaching 4th of July. 

Please accept my thanks for the compliment, and my regret 
that I cannot be present, owing to a previous engagement 
from the Committee in charge of the celebration at Gettysburg. 
As several officers wlio served under my command in that 
battle desire to revisit the field in my company, I do not 
feel at liberty to disregard the arrangement already made. 

The defence of the flag of the Union in Charleston Har- 
bor, at the commencement of the Rebellion, drew its inspira- 
tion from the opening scenes of the Revolution in the vicinity 
of Boston. I am glad to learn that Gen. Anderson has 
promised to be with you, for I think it peculiarly appropri- 
ate that Fort Sumter should do honor to Bunker Hill. 
I am sir. 

Your obedient servant, 

A. DOUBLEDAY, 
Major- General Volunteers . 
To His Honor, Mayor Lincoln, of Boston, 3Iass. 



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ORATION 



I)l;i,i\'i:i;i:i) r.KroRE the 



CITY AUTHORITIES OF BOSTON, 



FOURTH OF JULV, 1865 



J. M. MANNINCx, 



Tdl^KI'lll.l WITH 



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AMERICAN IXDEPENDEXC'E. 




BOSTON: 
J . E . F A K W K L L & CO M P A N Y , P R I N T E R S 

X ' 1 . 37 C O N G I! E S S S T R U K T . 

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